N E W

UNDERSTANDING
Edition
Digital

INSIDE THE HUMAN BRAIN

WHY DO WE FORGET?
THE SCIENCE OF DEMENTIA
MYSTERIES OF THE MIND
FALSE MEMORIES
EDITION
FIRST

AI, ROBOTS AND THE FUTURE

 © Getty
Welcome
O
ur libraries of treasured memories are perhaps
the most crucial part of being human. Memories
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explore the concept of false memories and perfect recall before turning
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UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Contents
06 32 Strange facts 58 Age-related
about memory memory loss
The unexpected ways our brains work Cognitive decline is inevitable

60 The power of
T H E B I O L O G Y active recall
O F M E M O R Y Memory recall can be sharpened

20 Your amazing brain 62 Can the brain

Explore our most important organ
rewire itself?
Minds adapt throughout our lives
28 How does the brain
remember? 64 What is muscle
28
Discover how we store our memories memory
The neural shortcuts key to survival
32 Why do we forget?
Why deleting memories can be 66 Generational memory
important for a healthy mind Is critical information passed down?

40 Types of memory T R I C K S
 7KHFDWHJRULHVWKDWGHȴQHUHFDOO O F T H E M I N D
44 That smells familiar 70 Mysteries of the mind
Key scents can act as a time machine The questions that stump scientists

74 Have you read 50

46 Why can’t we
remember dreams? this before?
 7KH\PLJKWEHYLYLGEXWȵHHWLQJ The science behind déjà vu

48 Never forget a face 76 Hypnosis explained

Discover how facial recognition is coded Mind control or subliminal trickery?
into our evolution
78 Eyewitness accounts
50 How we learn Why you shouldn’t trust them
Our brains are remarkable machines
for storing key information 80 7KH0DQGHODHˤHFW
 &ROOHFWLYHIDOVHPHPRULHVLGHQWLȴHG
56 Why we lose our
childhood memories 86 Photographic memory 74
Learn how development affects recall Is it too good to be true?

4
 C O N T E N T S

64

90

F R A C T U R E D
M E M O R Y
90 False memories
Why recall is far from perfect

94 Trauma and
memory loss
Why our brains subconsciously block
painful memories

98 Living in the present

Two remarkable case studies highlight
the brain’s profound ability to adapt
106
106 Dementia: the cruellest
disease?
The sickness that breaks our minds
98
F L O R A , F A U N A
A N D T H E F U T U R E
114 Animals with
excellent memories
The memory champs of nature
114
122 Plant memory
 +RZȵRUDUHPHPEHUVIRUVXUYLYDO

124 AI, robots and the

future of memory
The science of machine learning

124
128 How technology
changes our memory
Are the devices we rely on every day
altering how we remember things?

5
UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

32 Strange
facts about memory
Memory can be a playful thing – it collects minute details from
childhood events, yet leaves us wondering where we left our keys

6
 3 2 S T R A N G E
F A C T S A B O U T M E M O R Y

Emily? Emma?

“Now what Sophie?

was their Alice?

name?”
Do you often struggle to
remember names? Don’t worry:
you’re far from alone. While
the regions in our brain that
control our ability to recall faces continue to mature
into our 30s, by our 20s, our ability to remember
names is already beginning to fade. However, we
don’t tend to realise until we are in our 60s.

Memories can live on, even

if we can’t access them
Could forgotten songs non-recognisable songs that were
continue to live on recognised by others in the patient’s
inside our heads environment,” the researchers wrote.
without us knowing? The scientists said the woman had
In a 2013 report of a strange case in likely known the song at some point but
the journal Frontiers in Neurology, then forgotten it. The case raises the
researchers described a woman who question of what happens to forgotten
had musical hallucinations of a song memories and suggests that memories
that she didn’t recognise, but others did. can be stored in some form in the brain
Ȋ7RRXUNQRZOHGJHWKLVLVWKHȴUVW that renders them accessible and yet
report of musical hallucinations of somehow unrecognisable.

Mind-erasing
activities
Although rare, certain activities can
result in temporary memory loss and
brain fog known as transient global
amnesia. For example, sex has been
reported to cause this memory problem, with subjects
Images: Getty, Adobe Stock AI

IRUJHWWLQJWKHSDVWGD\RUVRDQGKDYLQJGLɚFXOW\IRUPLQJ
new memories afterwards. People with transient global
amnesia suffer no serious side-effects, and the memory
problems usually disappear in a few hours. But it’s not
clear how this happens, and brain scans of patients who
have had this type of amnesia show no signs of damage to
the brain or signs of stroke.

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UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Brain injuries
may cause
forgetfulness
It’s possible to lose memories before
they even have a chance to become
stored due to injuries in the brain’s structures that are
VSHFLȴFDOO\LQYROYHGLQKDQGOLQJPHPRU\IRUPDWLRQ
maintenance and recall. Damage to these areas can result in
curious forms of amnesia. In one of the most studied cases,
patient ‘H. M.’ lost the ability to form any new memories after
his hippocampus was removed during a surgery to treat his
epilepsy. Another famous case records the story of patient
Ȇ(3ȇZKRKDGDVLPLODUIDWHDIWHUKHVXIIHUHGLQȵDPPDWLRQ
of the brain caused by a virus.

We may be
programmed
to forget
infancy
Our earliest childhood
memories fade, and there’s
likely a reason for that.
Usually, people don’t recall
any memories from their earliest years of life before the
age of three or four. This is called infantile amnesia.
Scientists previously thought that early memories were
there, but children do not have the language skills to
verbalise them. However, recent research shows that
children make memories during their early years but
forget through deliberate mechanisms. One explanation
is that the developing brain wipes out stored memories
while generating cells.

Words by Bahar Gholipour

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 3 2 S T R A N G E
F A C T S A B O U T M E M O R Y

Short-term
memories
are quickly
forgotten
Our short-term memory is quite
limited. It’s thought we are only
able to hold seven ‘items’ of memory
for around 20 to 30 seconds before
they are forgotten.

Brain storage
It is estimated that the human brain is
capable of storing anywhere between
one to 1,000 terabytes of information. For
comparison, a single terabyte is around
500 hours’ worth of movies.

We start
remembering
really young
Research has shown that as soon as
Images: Getty

20 weeks after conception, memories

begin to form during development in the womb.

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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Tests
are best
Research has
suggested that
we remember
information better
after being tested on it. An experiment that
examined patients who were tested on a
certain subject and a group that wasn’t found
that the tested subjects were better able to
recall the facts later on.

Types of
learners
An estimated 65 per cent of
the population are ‘visual
learners’ and retain
information from visual
cues. Five per cent are
what is known as an ‘experimental learner’ – someone
who learns by doing and touching.

Smell is an
excellent
cue for
memories
Often smelling a scent can send you straight back to a particular
memory. This is due to the olfactory nerves’ close proximity to
the memory centre of the brain, the hippocampus.

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 3 2 S T R A N G E
F A C T S A B O U T M E M O R Y

Say it out loud

A study at the University of Waterloo,
Canada, found that saying information out
loud increased the chance of committing
it to long-term memory. The study’s
authors dubbed their results the ‘production effect’ and suggested
that a combination of saying the information and hearing oneself
led to better recall.

Record
breaker
Prijesh Merlin achieved
the world record for the
most random objects
memorised in 2012. He
managed to recall 470 random items in the exact order
in which they were read to him.

Childhood
memories fade
during childhood
Trying to remember what we did
as children is sometimes virtually
impossible. Known as ‘childhood
amnesia’, studies have found that
ȴYHWRVHYHQ\HDUROGVUHPHPEHU
around 60 per cent of early life,
whereas by the age of nine that recall
is down to around 40 per cent.
Images: Getty

11
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Brain
connections
form
memories
Memories are created
when new connections
between the brain’s neurons, called synapsis, are
formed. It’s estimated that our brains have between
approximately 100–1,000 trillion synaptic connections.

Sleeping
helps store
memories
While we sleep, our brains get some much-needed time to restore and
rejuvenate. This also applies to our memories as well. After a healthy
amount of sleep, studies have shown a distinct improvement in people’s
ability to recall information.

Drunken
memory
It’s been proven that the regular consumption
of alcohol can lead to more memory mishaps
in drinkers than in those who don’t drink. When drinking a boozy beverage,
the process of transforming short-term memories into long-term ones is
inhabited, and drinking can even reduce brain cell size.

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F A C T S A B O U T M E M O R Y

What did
I come
in for?
Psychologists at the
University of Notre Dame
have found that people
are two to three times more likely to forget what they
were supposed to do after walking through a doorway.

Napping
It might seem like a form
of procrastination to nap
between studying sessions,
but taking a snooze has been
found to improve recall. One
study, featured in the journal Nature Neuroscience, found
subjects could recall 85 per cent of test information after a
40-minute nap.

Train your brain

Studies have shown that regular
exercise can improve your
memory and help the areas of the
Images: Getty

brain that control memory

functions to enlarge.

13
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Women
have better
memories
Several studies have shown that women outscore their male
counterparts in memory tests – in particular when compared
during middle age (between 45 to 55 years old).

22 Lefties have
better recall
In a 2011 study comparing the memory
capabilities of both left-handed and right-handed
people, researchers found that lefties had a
greater ability to recall their lives.

Starting
to forget
The age at which we
begin to naturally lose the
sharpness of our memories was previously believed to
occur at around 60. However, it’s been found that this
may happen earlier, at just 45.

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F A C T S A B O U T M E M O R Y

Believing
helps you
remember
A 2003 study published in The Journals of Gerontology
discovered that simply believing that you have a good
memory may actually help to improve your ability to recall
information and events. Assuring yourself that you can
enhance your memory will make you more likely to work
regularly to do so.

Eat
something
spicy
Studies have shown that eating spicy food, in particular spices
used in Mexican cuisine, can help give your memory a boost. The
same aid to memory has been found after eating coriander.

&DˤHLQDWHG
memories
A study from Johns Hopkins
University, USA, concluded
that a dose of 200 milligrams of caffeine can enhance memory
consolidation. Researchers conducted a trial that involved
people who did not regularly eat or drink caffeinated products
FRQVXPLQJDSODFHERRUDPLOOLJUDPFDIIHLQHWDEOHWȴYH
minutes after studying a series of images. To ensure a fair test,
salivary samples were taken from the group before they took the
tablets to measure their caffeine levels. Follow-up samples were
then taken one, three and 24 hours later. On the following day,
the groups were tested on their ability to recognise images from
the previous day’s session. Some visuals were the same as those
Images: Getty

previously seen, while some were new and others were similar
but not the same. More members of the caffeine group were able
to identify the new images compared to the non-caffeine subjects.

15
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Close your
eyes and
remember
A study published in the

Remembering academic journal Legal and

Criminal Psychology found that
the good study participants who closed

old days their eyes while trying to recall

details of a film got 23 per cent
more correct answers.
A phenomenon called the
‘reminiscence bump’ occurs over
the age of 40, whereby there is a jump in the number of
memories adults are able to recall from their adolescence.

Rapid
formation
Within the adult hippocampus,
the memory headquarters of the
brain, 700 new neurons are born
everyday, resulting in an annual
turnover of 1.75 per cent.

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F A C T S A B O U T M E M O R Y

Is love at
first sight
real?
Love at first sight might not be as real as we once
hoped. A study at Northwestern University, USA, found
that our memories can be corrupted by our current
feelings, thus reframing and editing our memories.

Large
vocabulary
The average person can remember between
20,000 and 35,000 words, with 10,000 of
those words acquired by the age of eight.

Good versus
the bad
According to a study from 1930, after asking study
Images: Getty

participants to recall events throughout their

lives and repeat them a week later, 42 per cent of the good memories were
forgotten compared to 60 per cent of the bad ones.

17
18
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UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Your amazing
brain
Modern neuroscience is unravelling the body’s most
complex organ and rebuilding it from the bottom up

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

20
 Y O U R A M A Z I N G
B R A I N

Brain map Information transfer

Corpus callosum
The brain can be divided into Latin for ‘tough body’, this wide sheet
distinct structures, each with a of nerves connects the left and right
specialist set of functions sides of the brain, transferring
information from one to the other.

Memory Visual and

Cerebrum auditory systems
The cerebral cortex
makes up the majority Midbrain
of the human brain. It is The midbrain is buried near
divided into four lobes, the centre of the brain and
which handle the most is home to part of the
complex of tasks, reward pathway,
including planning, responsible for
memory and vision. reinforcing positive
behaviours
and addiction.
Temperature
and hydration Coordinated
Hypothalamus movement
The hypothalamus is
responsible for Cerebellum
maintaining equilibrium Cerebellum means
within the body. It ‘little brain’. It is the
monitors and adjusts control centre for
mechanisms like the coordinated
body’s temperature Perception movement, making
and hydration. Thalamus Sleep and dreaming fine adjustments
The thalamus is a Pons before the signals are
Hormones sent to the body.
switchboard for The pons is another Breathing
Pituitary gland sensory information, relay station within
This pea-sized gland connecting the the brain, allowing Medulla
The medulla is Connects nerves
is connected to the parts of the brain nerves in the
hypothalamus and and body involved cerebellum to contact responsible for the Brain stem
produces hormones, in perception and those in the cortex. The involuntary functions that The brain stem marks the end of the
passing on chemical movement. It also pons also plays an keep us all alive, like brain and connects the nerves to the
messages instead of controls the sleep/ important role in the sleep breathing, swallowing spinal cord. It contains two distinct
electrical impulses. wake cycle. cycle and dreaming. and heartbeat. structures, the pons and the medulla.

T
he human brain is the most
complicated structure in the
Throughout human evolution, these neocortical
columns have been duplicated repeatedly, until
“While the underlying
known universe. It has taken space in the skull started to run out. The cortex fabric of the brain is the
hundreds of millions of years
of evolution to construct, and
developed deep ridges and folds to fit more
and more processing power into the same tiny
same, every neuron in
over the last seven million space, and if unfolded, would cover an area HYHU\EUDLQLVGLˤHUHQW”
years, it has tripled in size. It weighs little measuring two square metres (21.5 square feet).
more than a bag of sugar but packed inside The neurons that make up the brain crisscross curious mice had many more new nerves and
it are 86 billion neurons, linked together by over one another in a vast network and each new connections than their lazier counterparts;
over 100 trillion connections in a network individual cell makes up to 10,000 connections, their brains had adapted as they learnt.
more powerful than even the most advanced building the most complex circuit in history. While the underlying fabric of the brain
supercomputers ever built. In 2013, a team at the Centre for Regenerative is the same, every neuron in every brain is
By far the largest part of the human brain Therapies in Dresden, Germany, examined different, and each makes its own unique path.
is the forebrain, and like the brains of other the formation of neuron connections in Every brain is wired differently, and the unique
mammals, it is covered in a thick layer of cloned mice. They wanted to learn how much connections are based on experiences.
neurons known as the cerebral cortex. But the brain’s structure is influenced by life Mapping the connections in the human brain
in humans, this layer has been massively experience. Because the mice were clones, is an enormous task and work is ongoing. The
expanded – it has 1,000 times as many neurons each was genetically identical, meaning any Human Connectome Project, launched in 2009,
as the same structure in a mouse, and it has not differences would be purely down to their is designed to map the intricate connections
yet stopped evolving. environment. The mice lived in large cages, between all of the neurons in the human brain,
The smallest processing units in the cortex with lots of toys and places to explore, and after in an effort analogous to the Human Genome
are known as neocortical columns where each just a few months, differences became apparent Project. Computers can be programmed to
contains thousands of different connections. in their brains. The most excitable, outgoing, trace the paths of neurons through brain-scan

21
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

images, but even the most advanced machines

make mistakes, and everything has to be
The science Thalamus

of sleep
double-checked by a human. During wakeful periods, the
thalamus transmits information to
As an alternative, some research teams
the cortex, but during sleep it
are trying a new approach: instead of using By monitoring the brain’s becomes rhythmic, generating
computers to analyse data, they use volunteers. electrical activity, scientists are spindle oscillations, selectively
unravelling the mystery of sleep preventing signals from passing.
In 2011, the online game Foldit made the
headlines when players solved a decade-
old biological question. By tapping into the
Hypothalamus Pineal gland
The hypothalamus makes This small gland is linked to the retina
spatial skills of video gamers, researchers used
connections with areas of the via the hypothalamus. When it gets
volunteers to solve three-dimensional protein brain involved in arousal and dark, the gland releases the hormone
puzzles that a computer would struggle with. By wakefulness. During sleep, it melatonin, helping to synchronise the
shuts down their activity. body with the environment.
playing the game, hundreds of people worked
together to help solve the protein structure Suprachiasmatic
made by a simian retrovirus that causes Cerebral cortex
nucleus This is involved in the highest
AIDS-like symptoms in monkeys. The SCN is the biological clock. functions of the human brain.
This approach is now being extended to the It contains just 50,000 neurons Much of it is deactivated during
field of neuroscience and crowd-sourcing is and is connected directly to the sleep, but during dreaming, parts
eyes. When it is light, it releases of the cortex are even more active
being used to map the connections between a powerful ‘alert’ signal. than when we are awake.
neurons in the back of the eye. Tracking the
intricate pathways of neurons in the brain is STAGE 1
a difficult task for computers, but people are
STAGE 2
much better at spotting patterns.
EyeWire is a project designed to map the
STAGE 3
nerve connections in the human retina. Players
are given a half-finished neuron and asked to STAGE 4
work through slices of the brain, colouring in
the connections. Each cube section is manually STAGE 5
checked multiple times by different people, so
22:00 23:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00
if someone makes a mistake it is averaged out
by the community. More experienced players Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
oversee the work and can make changes if they The first stage of As people enter the The third stage of We spend about ten Up to about five
sleep is the second stage of sleep is described per cent of the night times a night, we
feel they are needed. This approach speeds up transition period. sleep, their as ‘deep sleep’ and in this deep sleep enter rapid eye
the process by thousands of times. It is very light and breathing and heart is characterised by stage. Breathing is movement (REM)
Although projects like EyeWire provide a lasts just a few rate slow down and the presence of a rhythmic and there is sleep. The brain
minutes. As the their body slow delta-wave little muscle returns to normal
detailed and biologically accurate picture of brain shuts down, temperature drops. pattern, representing movement. Blood levels, but we remain
what is going on inside the human brain, there can be some Around half of sleep the underlying pressure drops and unconscious and
rebuilding the entire structure using this twitching as the time is spent in activity of the growth and repair have dreams of five
muscles relax. second-stage sleep. brain stem. processes begin. to 30 minutes each.
method will still take decades. The alternative

The developing brain

Baby Infant Child

In order to fit through the birth canal, human babies Support cells, known as glia, provide protection, By the age of ten or 11, the rapid development of
must be born well before their brains have finished insulation and nutrition for the brain and its new connections in the brain has ended and a
developing, so their brains grow rapidly in their first nervous system. Throughout childhood, they period of trimming and pruning begins. Instead of
years. Experiences prompt the development of new continue to migrate and grow. During the first creating extra pathways, the brain focuses in on the
connections between nerves, and by the time a two to three years of a child’s life, the most important, strengthening and insulating
baby is two years old, it has 1.5 times as many insulating white matter of the still-developing those that are used more often and losing ones that
synapses as an adult. brain begins to form. are no longer valuable.

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

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 Y O U R A M A Z I N G
B R A I N

Making memories The human brain has an amazing capacity for retaining information
Sensory memory Transfer Short-term memory
The body is constantly bombarded by The hippocampus integrates incoming sensory Without concentrating too hard, short-term
sensory signals and most incoming information, collecting it together as a single memory can hold around seven items for 20
sensory information is retained for less experience. It works together with the cortex to prioritise to 30 seconds. Collecting information into
than a second before it is forgotten. which information to store and which to forget. discrete chunks, like splitting a phone number up
into sections,
can help the
brain retain
Recall more.
Human
memory is
associative; it
works by
linking pieces Acoustic
of information
Neuron encoding
together.
changes
Short-term
Memories are If a synapse
memory tends
not stored as is used
to be based on
individual repeatedly,
sound, also
entities, but it becomes
known as
Implicit memory Explicit memory reconstructed increasingly
echoic
using several sensitive to
These types of memories do not require Explicit memories are accessed memory. When
stimulation,
conscious recall and are often based on consciously. They can be stored as GL˴HUHQWSDUWV remembering a
of the brain. producing more
motor skills. By repeating tasks, like riding a episodes, linked to a specific event or phone number,
receptors and
bike or playing the piano, pathways place, or stored by category as more it often helps to
strengthening
become automatic. abstract knowledge. rehearse it
the connection.
vocally in
your head.

Consolidation
Once the trace of a
memory is formed, Long-term
the pathway can be memory
consolidated with The hippocampus is
use. The more often a essential for the transfer
synapse is used, the of memories from short
stronger it becomes. to long-term storage.
Some of this memory
consolidation happens
Semantic encoding in dreaming as the
Instead of being linked to brain rehearses the
an audio memory, long-term day’s activities.
Recognition Association memories tend to be stored
The brain is very good at making Memories are rarely stored in isolation more abstractly, by concept.
associations, and incoming information is and one pathway is often linked to others. Other memories are stored as
compared to stored data, allowing us to Recognition and recall can trigger other sensory echoes, allowing entire
quickly recall things we already know or related memories – which is how a certain experiences to be remembered
have experienced before. music track can remind you of an event. and reconstructed.

Teenager Adult Old age

Trimming and adjusting the brain starts at the back Most growth and remodelling is complete by our Damage to the brain cannot easily be repaired, so
and works forward, continuing into the teenage early 20s, but new connections continue to form in as it ages, signs of wear begin to appear.
years. The prefrontal cortex, involved in planning, the adult brain, albeit at a much slower rate than in Connections are lost as nerve cells wither or as
judgement and emotional control, is the last to be children. Staying active and providing the brain debris builds up between synapses, and gradually,
finished. Research also suggests that adolescents’ with engagement and stimulation strengthens mental function can decline – sometimes critically,
ERG\FORFNVDUHZLUHGGL˴HUHQWO\VRWKH\QDWXUDOO\ existing connections, and new pathways continue leading to age-related illnesses like Alzheimer’s
go to bed and wake up later. to form as we learn. disease and Parkinson’s.

23
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

is to simulate the brain, taking what we already

know and using it as a scaffold to build the
Imaging the brain
Take a look at the most common techniques used to study the living brain
parts we have yet to study. By going back and
testing the model brain against the real data,
scientists can check that their simulation is
working as it should.
Japan’s K Computer is one of the fastest and
most powerful in the world, and in 2014, 83,000
of its processors were combined to simulate one
per cent of one second of human brain activity.
This was a huge achievement, but it took the
machine 40 minutes and barely represented a
fraction of the power of the human brain.
The problem is that most modern computers
are built on architecture completely different CT fMRI
to the human brain. The brain is made of Computed tomography (CT) scans use X-rays to Functional magnetic resonance imaging detects
processing cores, capable of specialising in build a three-dimensional brain image. The the amount of oxygen in the blood, allowing brain
performing specific tasks. They are less precise UDGLDWLRQWUDYHOVDWGL˴HUHQWVSHHGVWKURXJK activity to be mapped. When brain regions
GL˴HUHQWWLVVXHVDOORZLQJDGHQVLW\PDSWREH become more active, their demand for blood
but have much more flexibility, and most produced. This method of imaging provides rises, and they light up on the image. It captures
importantly, the capacity to learn. Memories purely structural information, which is useful a picture of the activity of the entire brain
are not stored in one particular place and are for identifying tumours. every two seconds.
instead distributed across the network. In
contrast, modern computers use programs
to decide what to do and store elements in a
hierarchical memory.
In 2013, the European Commission funded
the Human Brain Project with a grant of €1
billion (£800 million/$1.3 billion) to accomplish
just that. This ambitious, endeavour aimed to
develop cutting-edge computational tools to
assist in the understanding of brain function,
bringing together the fragments from different
disciplines and providing an unprecedented PET EEG
map of human brain activity. The Human Positron emission tomography uses safe Electroencephalograms take advantage of the
radioactive isotopes to measure brain activity. By electrical signals produced by nerves to
Brain Project hopes to use this information to labelling oxygen or sugar with radioactive tags, produce a map of brain function. Electrodes
build a supercomputer capable of simulating blood flow in the brain can be monitored. The tags placed on the scalp are able to detect the
the network that makes up the human brain. emit low-energy radiation, and as blood is patterns of nerve activity beneath the surface.
diverted to active regions of the brain, the This technique comes in particularly handy for
They estimate that it would take one laptop to emissions pinpoint the locations. sleep studies.
simulate the activity of one neuron and are
working closely with IBM to develop powerful
neuromorphic supercomputers.
Neuromorphic chips are computer chips
modelled on the architecture of the human
brain. IBM released a chip modelled on the
human brain in 2014. Known as the SyNAPSE
chip, it has one million ‘neurons’ connected by
256 million ‘synapses’. They are arranged into
4,096 ‘synaptic cores’, which function in parallel
with one another just like the processing cores
in the brain. Just like the brain, they operate
on demand and can compensate if one core
happens to fail.
By feeding these computers with inputs
that mimic biological signals, scientists can
then examine the electrical activity and can
see where information is being processed and
stored. The project is a collaboration between
over 100 institutions in 24 countries.

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

24
 Y O U R A M A Z I N G
B R A I N

Brain damage 'LˤHUHQWLQMXULHVDˤHFWWKHEUDLQLQGLˤHUHQWZD\V

If the injury is
severe, the patient )RFDOLQMXU\ 'LˤXVHLQMXU\
is no longer able The skull is strong, but a direct When the blood supply to
Severe

to respond to blow to the head can cause the brain is interrupted, by

sensory bruising, bleeding and even trauma, stroke, or infections
stimulation. Their penetrate the brain. The like meningitis, large areas
eyes remain damage from these kinds of can become damaged.
closed and there injuries tends to be focused on
is no response at one location. Parietal lobe
all to verbal cues. Damage to the
parietal lobes
Frontal lobe D˴HFWVVSDWLDO
When brain injury Damage to the
awareness and the
Moderate

is moderately frontal lobes

ability to
severe, verbal D˴HFWVKLJKHU
understand the
communication cognitive
three-dimensional
starts to break functions like
environment, either
down and reasoning, social
visually or by touch.
patients no longer interactions and
respond normally emotional
Occipital lobe
to pain. regulation.
The occipital lobe
is responsible for
Temporal lobe vision, so injury to
With mild brain Damage to the the back of the
injury, patients may temporal lobes head can result in
be confused, but can interrupt the visual problems,
Mild

they remain aware, formation of visual ranging from

conscious and and long-term temporary
conversational. memories, as well blurring through to
as processing ‘seeing stars’ and
incoming sensory to permanent
information. blindness.

“The brain is made up

of processing cores,
capable of specialising
to perform highly
specific tasks”
New technology is the key to modelling a
structure as complex as the human brain,
and other international efforts are also in
place to provide novel technology. In 2013,
US President Barack Obama announced the
Brain Research through Advancing Innovative
Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative. The
NIH (National Institutes of Health) allocated
£24 million ($40 million) in 2014 to develop
new technologies to find the best way to
understand the brain. To break the brain down
and rebuild it accurately, the project combined
silicon-based techniques and advancements in
stem-cell biology, brain imaging and medical
drug development.
The practical applications of this future
technology are incredible, but we can interface
with the brain in more ways than ever before.
Light-sensitive retinal implants can restore sight
to the blind by sending electrical signals to the

25
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Cutting-edge neuroscience
The human brain is one of the most complex structures in the known universe and understanding how it
works is an enormous scientific undertaking. Modern neuroscience brings together experts from a huge
array of fields and scientists are finally beginning to untangle the many mysteries of the human brain

Building +RZPLQGFRQWUROZRUNV
a brain Simple equipment and complex computer programming allow our
thoughts to be transmitted over the internet
Large-scale projects aim to
simulate the human brain EEG recording
at every level Signal analysis
As the sender watches the game, they The signal is sent to a computer,
decide to fire the cannon, generating where it is compared with a
DNA and a recognisable EEG signal. known pattern. If it is a match,
neurotransmitters it is transferred.
At the molecular level, scientists
can manipulate the 3D structures Wireless transmission
of proteins using computer There is no need for the two brains to
programmes and model the be physically connected; the digital
signal is transmitted over the internet.
H˴HFWVWKDWFKDQJHVPLJKWKDYH
Such techniques are hugely
INTERNET
useful in drug design. Push the button
TMS The artificial signals
Using transcranial trigger the receiver
Nerves and magnetic stimulation, to push the button.
support cells an electrical signal is The key press is
To gain a proper understanding delivered through the relayed back to the
of how the brain functions, many receiver’s scalp. first computer,
scientists advocate a bottom-up winning the game.
approach. By creating digital
neurons that are based on the
underlying rules and principles
of biology, it is hoped that the
complex network of the brain
can be simulated.

1HXUDOSDWKZD\V
Some projects aim to map all of
the connections in the human
brain, generating a 3D
representation of the intricate
wiring. Others aim to simulate
the process, allowing the
computer to make its own
connections based on
biological rules.

Lobes and structures

Simulations will allow information
Mind control
DERXWGL˴HUHQWVWUXFWXUHVLQWKH In a groundbreaking experiment, researchers at the University of Washington
brain to be integrated, enabling successfully linked two human brains and proved their principle with a video game.
scientists to more closely In the game, a city is under attack by pirates, and player one, the sender, must
examine the interactions intercept their rockets. They can see the screen and are armed with a cannon, but
EHWZHHQGL˴HUHQWDUHDVRUHYHQ they do not have a keyboard and cannot press ‘fire’. Player two, the receiver, is
to remove one region and study sitting in another room; he cannot see the game, but he does have a keyboard.
it in isolation. Player one thinks about firing the cannon, and fractions of a second later, player
two pushes the button, saving the city and winning the game.
Whole brain Player one was wired up to an electroencephalogram (EEG), and his brain
In 2013, the K Computer in activity was being monitored. When he was thinking about pressing the button,
Japan carried out one second there was a characteristic signal in the ‘mu band’ of the EEG, triggering the program
of simulated human brain to send a wireless signal to player two.
activity. With 705,024 processor Player two was wearing a specially designed coil on his scalp that generated a
cores, it took the machine 40 magnetic field positioned over the part of the brain that controls contraction in
minutes to simulate a network the right hand. The signal from player one was converted into magnetic
just one per cent of the size of stimulation, which triggered electrical activity in the brain, causing player two to
the human brain. Advanced involuntarily fire the cannon.
processors will increase this
capability significantly.

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

26
 Y O U R A M A Z I N G
B R A I N

“Researchers are
using electricity
to selectively
erase memories”

optic nerve while auditory brainstem implants

communicate sound signals directly to the brain
in patients who are profoundly deaf.
However, one of the most incredible
technological developments is the BrainGate
system, first revealed in 2006 and now
undergoing clinical trials. The technology
uses a sensor implanted in the motor cortex
of the brain to pick up electrical signals
generated when the patient thinks about
Can the brain heal? moving. These signals are then decoded by a
The human brain has a limited capacity for repair, so once a computer program and sent to a prosthetic
region is injured, it cannot be replaced. The damaged cells limb. By carefully training the program to
are removed, and support cells known as astrocytes divide to
IRUPDZDOODURXQGWKHJDSWRVHDOR˴WKHDUHD7KHVSDFH recognise specific signals, patients are able to
then becomes filled with fluid. However, all is not lost. move their bionic hands using just the power
The human brain is a remarkable organ, and although it of their brains.
cannot repair itself, as such, it can adapt. Nerves are not fixed
in their function or connections, so if a part of the brain is Taking electrical brain interfaces one step
injured, new connections can be made to bypass the further, at the University of California, San
damage. The amount of function that can be regained Diego, researchers are using electricity to
depends on the location and severity of the injury. Further
progress can be greatly aided by rehabilitation, encouraging selectively erase memories. They have shown
the formation of new pathways in the brain. that by using particular frequencies of electrical
pulses they can produce changes in the nerve
cells in the brains of rats, making them forget
*URZLQJDEUDLQ traumatising experiences in their past.
In 2013, scientists at the Austrian As we learn more about the connections in
Academy of Sciences achieved the brain, the possibilities for interacting with
something incredible: they grew part of it will only continue to increase. The field of

© Thinkstock; Dreamstime; Science Photo Library; Madeline A. Lancaster; University of Washington

a human brain in a Petri dish. Using a
combination of embryonic stem cells neuroscience is advancing faster than ever
and stem cells taken from adult skin, the before, and huge international collaborations,
team recreated the neuroectoderm, the like the Human Brain Project and the BRAIN
embryonic structure that forms the brain
and the spinal cord. initiative, are bringing mountains of research
The cells were put in three- data together, creating resources that will
GLPHQVLRQDOVFD˴ROGVWRJLYHWKHP revolutionise the field of neuroscience.
something to grow around, given
nutrients and oxygen, and allowed to The puzzle of the human brain has been
develop. Amazingly, the structures vexing scientists, doctors, and philosophers for
organised themselves into something thousands of years and understanding how it
resembling the brain of a nine-week-old
foetus. Some contained the pigmented works is perhaps the most challenging problem
cells of a retina, others developed a in the history of science. However, with a
cortex, and some even had a combination of powerful new technology and
hippocampus. These mini-brains are
about the size of a pea and incapable international collaboration, the complexity of
of conscious thought but could provide this mass of neurons is starting to unravel.
a valuable tool for researchers. Very soon, we might even be able to rebuild a
functioning digital brain from the bottom up.

27
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

How does
the brain
remember?
Discover how this vital organ stores
and utilises memories in a process
essential to life as we know it

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here would we be $FWLRQVWDNHQ
without memory? IURPUHFDOOLQJ
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we are, and being unable to store information VSHFLHVȇVXUYLYDELOLW\
as we learn would leave us with the permanent The majority of other
LQWHOOLJHQFHRIDQHZERUQ animals have adapted to
Your memory is made up of information store only the memories that
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us to have a
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this mass of events, the ones that had the
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likely to remain in your memory

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

28
 H O W D O E S T H E
B R A I N R E M E M B E R ?

Making memories:
the biology of
remembering
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29
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Inside the
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Take a look inside the brain to
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T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

30
 H O W D O E S T H E
B R A I N R E M E M B E R ?

Tips for a
better memory
How you can improve your memory
by making changes in your day-to-day life

Pay Stimulate Exercise Get enough Try Drink less

attention your brain regularly sleep meditating alcohol
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31
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Why do we
forget?
As we navigate life, we collect masses of souvenirs in the
form of memories. But we can’t keep all of these forever

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

32
 W H Y D O W E
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H
ave you ever entered a between neurons. Suppressing unimportant
room only to forget what information from becoming active
you went in there to do? memories prevents the brain from becoming
Scientists think that the overwhelmed. In other instances, painful
brain interprets entering mind-consuming memories of traumatic
a doorway as a new place events can be blocked or rewritten to induce
and a new scene, causing you to temporarily less pain. Suppressing these painful memories
erase your train of thought – the short-term maintains the emotional stability needed
PHPRU\RIZK\\RXZHQWWKHUHLQWKHȴUVW for effective daily functions.
place. This is just one of the brain’s many Forgetting also builds creativity. If
memory quirks and tactics. And while memories were permanent, our thought
forgetting can be frustrating, the human processes and actions would be too rigid,
body can only function with a balance of and our brains couldn’t evolve new ways
erased and consolidated memories. of thinking. Creativity provides us
Your memory shapes who you Did you with the ability to explore new
are, connects chronological know? approaches to problems and
The average person
events, provides meaning to express ourselves uniquely.
can hold five to nine
your surroundings and allows items in their When you feel overwhelmed or
you to form relationships. Your short-term memory stressed, your brain is less capable
memory also serves as a survival at one time of forming new thinking patterns
tool, keeping you alive. By learning and returns to more rigid habits
what’s dangerous and remembering simple and thought processes. This is sometimes
information such as where you live and the reason for experiencing a mental block
ZKHUHWRȴQGIRRG\RXȇUHEHWWHUHTXLSSHG during creative activities.
WRFKRRVHZKDWZLOOEHQHȴW\RXDQGZKDWWR Forgetting is often considered a weakness –
avoid using your past experiences. an indication of intelligence and the level of
When you learn new information, whether knowledge our brains can store. But at peak
it’s a complex skill or the name of an object, cognitive ability, our memory is ever-evolving,
the brain forms new connections between and forgetting should be considered more
nerve cells called neurons. This creates of a superpower. When you delete the noise
a map throughout the brain that makes consuming your memory, more energy can
previously encountered information easier be channelled into focusing, adapting and
to retrieve. The more you revise the name prioritising the information needed to shape
of an object, for example, the stronger that your sense of self and mentally thrive.
connection becomes and the easier it is to
remember its name. It might seem like the
“If memories were
permanent, our thought
busier this neural map is, the more intelligent
you will become. But just as a smartphone
slows down when its storage reaches its
processes would be
too rigid and our brains
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it has less to process. It actively forgets
information that isn’t reused, or that hasn’t
couldn’t evolve new
ways of thinking”
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weakening the corresponding connections

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to remember – as well as to forget at the 2024 World Memory Championships

33
UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Did you

What if you
know?
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didn’t forget?
visual information
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than text

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temporal lobe processes your
keeping you alive”
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much data to filter through and them through a more
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T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

34
 W H Y D O W E
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Memories form when the connections between

neurons increase in strength or number

5 Facts
things that
make you
forget

1 High stress
When you’re
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neural connections and related to the memory can

4
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strengthening more JLYHQWKHWLWOH¶IRUJHWWLQJFHOOV· reorganise and strengthen a
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35
UNDERSTANDING MEMORY
Did you
know?
Sleep improves
memory retention

Memory
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Forgotten dreams
through the years
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beneficial information learned during
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long-term memory so that it can be
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but most dreams you have while females more likely to have an earlier first memory continues to improve up until around
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$WDURXQGWKHDJHRI\RXUEUDLQ·VPHPRU\ 1DWXUDOO\WKHPHPRU\PDNLQJSDUWRIWKH
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T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

36
 W H Y D O W E
F O R G E T ?

The rate of forgetting

In his ‘forgetting curve’, psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus showed
Did you
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volume every year

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initial sorting process and the most dramatic loss of forgotten after one day as your brain discards
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31 days 60 days
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37
 Did you
UNDERSTANDING MEMORY know?
Temporarily forgetting
something you know
is called ‘blocking’

Memory damage
and disease
Dementia is an umbrella term for conditions of
memory loss caused by neuron damage

Alzheimer’s
disease
This illness is the common cause of
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over time and is caused by a
buildup of two proteins – amyloid
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proteins that build up along brain
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prevents the usual formation and brain’s structure and function
UHWHQWLRQRIPHPRULHV following a severe injury

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occurs in the frontal and
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T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

38
 W H Y D O W E
F O R G E T ?

How animal Bees

memories Two minutes

compare
Bees’ short-term memory helps
them navigate
maze-like environments Crows
Three days 30 seconds
Animals can remember key survival information Bees remember the location of a Most bird species forget
for a lifetime, but how long before they forget hive for days at a time short-term memories after half a
minute has passed
trivial events in their working memory?
17 years
Crows held a grudge against a
human captor for nearly
Chimpanzees two decades

20 seconds
This suggests humans’ short-term
memory developed after we
evolved from our shared ancestors
25 years
Chimpanzees can retain
memories of faces for
25 years

Elephants Humans Dogs

27 Five minutes 48 hours
Two minutes

seconds
Information is quickly dropped to A dog will only remember the
Humans can recall random events last couple of throws in
keep their social and environmental
for over two days a game of fetch
memory strong
The average short-term
memory of 25 species 12 years Indefinite Ten years
of birds, mammals Our large brains can store some
Elephants can remember Ingrained tricks stick with canines
and bees memories for a lifetime
a relative’s scent for after a decade
over a decade

Do plants have memory?

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signalling systems that enable them to WKHWUDSLVQ·WWULJJHUHGEXWWKHPRYHPHQWRI
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of a plant deemed to have short-term which it remembers the first point of contact
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39
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Types of memory
Your brain is so much more than a hard
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B
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T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

40
 T Y P E S O F
M E M O R Y

Short-term memory Sensory memory

Sensory memories are like echoes,

S
repeating the last thing you saw, heard or felt
hort-term memory is the When short-term memory is active, a on a temporary loop. They’re the reason you
brain’s notebook. It’s a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex can work out what someone was saying
powerful problem-solving lights up. The left side activates when you’re even when you weren’t really listening.
tool, but its time and space are trying to remember sounds, and the right You only have the capacity to pay
limited. Keeping information side is triggered when you’re thinking about attention to around one per cent of
here takes effort and attention space. These two key brain regions correspond incoming sensory information at any one
and only happens when we’re conscious. Short- to two critical workspaces used by working time, so your brain stores the excess data in
term memory can only hold around seven items, memory during problem-solving tasks. The a temporary queue. It organises sensations
give or take two, and the information fades fast. ȴUVWLVWKHSKRQRORJLFDOORRSȂWKHYRLFH
into chunks called ‘events’, breaks those
events into even smaller chunks called
Rehearsing short-term memories can help inside your head – which stores audio data.
‘segments’, and keeps a detailed record of
them to stick around for longer, and grouping The second is the visuospatial sketchpad –
every sight, sound, taste, smell and feeling
information into chunks can boost memory the mind’s eye – which stores images and happening right now.
capacity. But storage isn’t really what short- mental maps. Impressions left in the sensory memory
term memory is for. It’s much more useful as a Working memory is also supported by a third are vivid, but they last just fractions of a
workpad for information manipulation. short-term memory space called the episodic second before they fade away. This gives
Short-term memory forms a part of working buffer. This area holds information from the the brain just enough time to work out
memory – the brain’s rapid problem-solving other senses and keeps track of time. They might which information to pay attention to and
system. This is the part of the memory that have a small capacity, but these memory stores which to ignore.
keeps track of reading, divides restaurant bills, each have a crucial role to play in helping us to
and works out a route to the shop. process information rapidly.

Sensory memory holds temporary

Short-term memory is the
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echoes of incoming information

notebook for working memory

41
UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Long-term memory
Short-term memories are quick and easy for
the brain to make, but as soon as you lose
focus, the information disappears.
Long-term memories solve this problem by
storing the data permanently inside
networks of connected brain cells. These
networks, called ensembles, can recreate
the electrical traces left by your
experiences, allowing you to recall facts,
events and skills on demand.
Long-term memory has two major parts:
one contains information that you can
access consciously (declarative memory),
Episodic memory stores
and the other comprises instructions you
your life experiences
can access without thinking (procedural

Episodic memory
memory). Both types depend on a
phenomenon called synaptic plasticity.
Synapses are the connections between

E
brain cells, and your brain has around
100 trillion of them. They allow messages to pisodic memories can be as connection – good or bad – the harder the
pass from one cell to the next using simple as what you had for episodic memory is to forget. This is the reason
chemical signals called neurotransmitters, breakfast last Monday or as that the most vivid episodic memories are often
but they aren’t all equal; the strength of complex as a complete re-run emotionally charged.
each synapse depends on how often it’s RI\RXUȴUVWGD\DWVFKRRO7KH\ Other episodic memory helpers include the
used. This means that the brain is rewiring all are the brain’s autobiographical medial temporal lobe and the prefrontal cortex,
the time, constantly adjusting the strength of VWRUDJHV\VWHPKROGLQJVSHFLȴFLQIRUPDWLRQ areas that both keep memories stored in the
existing synapses, creating new about events from the past. correct order.
connections and pruning old ones away. The hippocampus only gets one shot at You can recall episodic memories at will, but
Strong connections between networks of
encoding episodes into long-term storage, so they can also resurface unexpectedly during
brain cells make it easier and faster for the
it relies on other brain areas for support. This daydreaming. This plays a crucial role in future
brain to activate specific circuits. The more
you practice a skill or repeat a fact, the includes the amygdala, which attaches emotions planning, allowing you to use past experiences
stronger the connections become. But to memories: the stronger the emotional to prepare for what might happen next.
repetition isn’t always needed; it’s possible
to store long-term memories after only one

Declarative
exposure. It helps if the new information
links to something you already know

(explicit)
because many connections required to
store the memory are already in place.

memory

D
eclarative memory is the
closest thing to a hard drive
in the human brain. It looks
after the long-term memories
that you can access with Declarative memory holds both general
facts and specific experiences
your conscious mind, and
it is comprised of two parts. Semantic memory deciding which information is important
stores facts, and episodic memory stores events. enough to store away. The hippocampus makes
Declarative memory is sometimes called these decisions in collaboration with the brain’s
ȆH[SOLFLWȇPHPRU\EHFDXVHLWFRQWDLQVVSHFLȴF emotional centre, the amygdala.
knowledge: what, when, where, who and why. The hippocampus can update and edit
Long-term storage for declarative memories memories as new information comes in, but it
happens in a part of the brain called the rarely keeps a perfect record. Ask ten people what
neocortex. To get there, memories have to go via WKH\VDZDWWKHVFHQHRIDURDGWUDɚFDFFLGHQW
Long-term memory is the brain’s
permanent hard drive the hippocampus, which acts like a gatekeeper, and they’ll all give a slightly different account.

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

42
 T Y P E S O F
M E M O R Y

“It looks after facts and general ideas” Semantic

memory
S
emantic literally means
‘relating to language or logic’;
it’s the part of the memory that
handles knowledge. It looks
DIWHUERWKVSHFLȴFIDFWVOLNHWKH
date of a friend’s birthday, and
general ideas, such as balloons.
This is the memory store that allows you to
recognise a birthday cake and know that you
should light the candles, even though you’ve
probably never seen that exact cake before.
Storing data into semantic memory takes time
and repetition. You don’t need to remember a
VSHFLȴFSDUW\WRNQRZZKDWDELUWKGD\FDNHLV
To store semantic memories, the
hippocampus needs to lay down the facts
without all the extra details about where
you were or how you felt when you learnt
them. The more times you encounter the
same information, the easier it is for the
hippocampus to extract the facts and store
Semantic memory allows you
to recognise a birthday cake them as standalone memory chunks.

Procedural (implicit) memory

P
rocedural memory is the
reason you never forget how
to ride a bike. Sometimes
known as ‘muscle memory’,
it’s the brain’s storage
space for ‘how-to’ manuals
about tasks that require sequences of actions.
Memories stored here include ‘how to walk’,
‘how to play the piano’, and ‘how to put words
together to make sentences’. You access this
information unconsciously, allowing you to
complete tasks without having to think about
them, thereby saving precious energy.
Procedural memory involves several parts
of the brain, but some of the most important
are the parietal lobes, the basal ganglia and
the cerebellum. The parietal lobes make
links between different types of information,
coupling incoming sensory data to knowledge
about muscle movement. The basal ganglia
helps to decide which actions to perform.
The cerebellum coordinates the movements
themselves, making sure everything happens in
© Getty

the right order and at the right time.

43
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

That smells
familiar
Why do certain scents take you
straight back to the past?

T
he nose can pick up thousands memory and navigation; and the hippocampus,
of different chemical signals, the master of long-term memory storage.
enabling us to detect millions These connections help us to learn where
of unique smells. Some of smells come from and what they mean. Then, if
those scents trigger powerful we encounter the same smell again, we’ll know
memories, and it’s all down to how to respond. For example, the brain’s threat-
the wiring in our brains. detection centre, the amygdala, lights up when
Incoming signals from the nose arrive at we smell something that is unpleasant.
the olfactory bulbs before travelling to the Smells can trigger dormant memories. These
pyriform cortex. This part of the brain acts as reach back into childhood, and studies in rats
a gateway, making connections to several other suggest that they form during development.
brain regions. There’s the orbitofrontal cortex, Strong odour-linked memories may help animals
involved in decision-making; the amygdala, the to survive before their other senses are fully
brain’s emotional centre; the hypothalamus, developed – as their eyes and ears improve, the
which links the nervous and hormonal systems need to recall smells becomes less important. Olfactory bulb
together; the insula, which is involved in Sensing the scents again in adulthood can 6LJQDOVIURPGL˴HUHQWVPHOOV
FRQYHUJHKHUHEHIRUHPRYLQJ
consciousness; the entorhinal cortex, involved in EULQJPHPRULHVȵRRGLQJEDFN
RQWRWKHS\ULIRUPFRUWH[

From nose
to brain
Our sense of smell is wired into the
memory and emotion centres of the brain

Receptor cell
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T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

44
 T H A T S M E L L S
F A M I L I A R

Memory boost
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VFLHQWLVWVZRQGHULQJZKHWKHUZHFDQXVH
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ODYHQGHUPDGHLWZRUVHDOWKRXJKWKH
YROXQWHHUVGLGIHHOFDOPHU

Pyriform cortex Hippocampus

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Distinctive scents trigger deep memories,

DˤHFWLQJPRRGDQGFRQFHQWUDWLRQ

The brain stores memories in

connections between nerve cells

Amygdala
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45
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Why can’t we
remember our dreams?
You spend a third of your life asleep, a good chunk of which involves
dreaming, yet often, you don’t remember any of your dreams

Our dreams can range from bizarre

to mundane and blissful to terrifying

E
ven on those lucky days when you studies consistently show that even people who Neuron. Researchers have found one of the last
wake up with a memory of the KDYHQȇWUHFDOOHGDVLQJOHGUHDPLQGHFDGHV UHJLRQVWRJRWRVOHHSLVWKHKLSSRFDPSXVȂD
GUHDPVWLOOȵRDWLQJLQ\RXUPLQG RUHYHQWKHLUHQWLUHOLIHWLPHGRLQIDFW curved structure that resides within each
WKHUHȇVDJRRGFKDQFHWKDWLQMXVW UHFDOOWKHPLIWKH\DUHDZDNHQHGDWWKHULJKW EUDLQKHPLVSKHUHZKLFKLVFULWLFDOIRUPRYLQJ
DPLQXWHWKHPHPRU\ZLOOYDQLVK PRPHQW$QGULOORQDGGHG information from short-term memory into
LQWRWKLQDLU,QZDNLQJOLIHVXFK :KLOHWKHH[DFWUHDVRQLVQRWIXOO\ ORQJWHUPPHPRU\
DFDVHRITXLFNO\IRUJHWWLQJUHFHQWH[SHULHQFHV NQRZQVFLHQWLVWVKDYHJDLQHGVRPHLQVLJKW ,IWKHKLSSRFDPSXVLVWKHODVWWRJRWR
ZRXOGVXUHO\ODQG\RXLQDGRFWRUȇVRɚFH:LWK LQWRPHPRU\SURFHVVHVGXULQJVOHHS VOHHSLWFRXOGYHU\ZHOOEHWKHODVWWRZDNH
GUHDPVKRZHYHUIRUJHWWLQJLVQRUPDO:K\" OHDGLQJWRVHYHUDOLGHDVWKDWPD\H[SODLQ XS$QGULOORQVDLGȊ6R\RXFRXOGKDYHWKLV
Ȋ:HKDYHDWHQGHQF\WRLPPHGLDWHO\IRUJHW RXUSHFXOLDUIRUJHWIXOQHVV window where you wake up with a dream

You are awake, but is

GUHDPVDQGLWȇVOLNHO\WKDWSHRSOHZKRUDUHO\ LQ\RXUVKRUWWHUPPHPRU\EXWVLQFH

your hippocampus?
UHSRUWGUHDPVDUHMXVWIRUJHWWLQJWKHPPRUH WKHKLSSRFDPSXVLVQRWIXOO\DZDNH\HW\RXU
HDVLO\ȋVDLG7KRPDV$QGULOORQDQHXURVFLHQWLVW EUDLQLVQRWDEOHWRNHHSWKDWPHPRU\ȋ
DW0RQDVK8QLYHUVLW\LQ0HOERXUQH$XVWUDOLD :KHQZHIDOODVOHHSQRWDOOWKHEUDLQȇV :KLOHWKLVPLJKWH[SODLQZK\GUHDP
,WPLJKWEHKDUGWREHOLHYHWKDW\RXKDGD UHJLRQVJRRɛLQHDWWKHVDPHWLPH PHPRULHVDUHVRȵHHWLQJLWGRHVQȇWPHDQ
GUHDPLI\RXGRQȇWUHPHPEHUDQ\WKLQJEXW DFFRUGLQJWRDVWXG\LQWKHMRXUQDO your hippocampus has been inactive

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

46
 W H Y C A N ’ T W E R E M E M B E R
O U R D R E A M S ?

WKURXJKRXWWKHQLJKW,QIDFWWKLVUHJLRQ VOHHSZKHUHWKHPRVWYLYLGGUHDPVRFFXU,Q GHHPHGE\WKHEUDLQWREHWRRXVHOHVVWRUHFDOO

LVDFWLYHGXULQJVOHHSDQGDSSHDUVWREH WKLVVWDJHDFHW\OFKROLQHUHWXUQVWRZDNHIXOQHVV WKHODWHGUHDPUHVHDUFKHU(UQHVW+DUWPDQQȂ
VWRULQJDQGFDULQJIRUH[LVWLQJPHPRULHV OHYHOVEXWOHYHOVRIQRUDGUHQDOLQHVWD\ORZ ZKRZDVDSURIHVVRURISV\FKLDWU\DW7XIWV
WRFRQVROLGDWHWKHPLQVWHDGRIOLVWHQLQJ 6FLHQWLVWVKDYH\HWWRZRUNRXWWKLV 8QLYHUVLW\6FKRRORI0HGLFLQHȂZURWHLQ
IRUQHZH[SHULHQFHV8SRQDZDNHQLQJWKH SX]]OHEXWVRPHVXJJHVWWKDWWKLVSDUWLFXODU 6FLHQWLȴF$PHULFDQ.
brain may need a few minutes to start its FRPELQDWLRQRIQHXURWUDQVPLWWHUVPLJKW %XWGUHDPVWKDWDUHPRUHYLYLGHPRWLRQDO
PHPRU\HQFRGLQJDELOLWLHV EHWKHUHDVRQZHIRUJHWRXUGUHDPV7KH DQGFRKHUHQWVHHPWREHEHWWHUUHPHPEHUHGȂ
,QDVWXG\SXEOLVKHGLQWKHMRXUQDO ERRVWLQDFHW\OFKROLQHSXWVWKHFRUWH[LQDQ SHUKDSVEHFDXVHWKH\WULJJHUPRUHDZDNHQLQJ
Frontiers in Human NeuroscienceUHVHDUFKHUV DURXVHGVWDWHVLPLODUWRZDNHIXOQHVVZKLOH DQGWKHLURUJDQLVHGQDUUDWLYHPDNHVWKHP
LQ)UDQFHPRQLWRUHGVOHHSSDWWHUQVLQSHRSOH low noradrenaline reduces our ability to HDVLHUWRVWRUH$QGULOORQVDLG
ZKRUHSRUWHGUHPHPEHULQJWKHLUGUHDPV UHFDOORXUPHQWDOHVFDSDGHVGXULQJWKLVWLPH ,I\RXDUHLQWHQWRQLPSURYLQJ\RXUGUHDP
DOPRVWHYHU\GD\DQGRWKHUVZKRUDUHO\ DFFRUGLQJWRDVWXG\LQWKHMRXUQDO UHFDOOWKHUHDUHDIHZWULFNV\RXFDQWU\5REHUW
UHPHPEHUHGWKHLUGUHDPV7KHWHDPIRXQG Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 6WLFNJROGDQDVVRFLDWHSURIHVVRURISV\FKLDWU\

Sometimes your dreams

WKDWFRPSDUHGZLWKORZGUHDPUHFDOOHUVKLJK DW+DUYDUG0HGLFDO6FKRROVXJJHVWVGULQNLQJ
water before bed because it will make you
are just not memorable
UHFDOOHUVZRNHXSPRUHIUHTXHQWO\GXULQJWKH
QLJKW7KHVHPLGGOHRIWKHQLJKWDZDNHQLQJV ZDNHXSDWQLJKWWRXVHWKHEDWKURRP7KHVH
ODVWHGDQDYHUDJHRIWZRPLQXWHVIRUKLJK 'R\RXUHPHPEHUZKDW\RXZHUHWKLQNLQJ ȊPLGGOHRIWKHQLJKWDZDNHQLQJVDUHIUHTXHQWO\
UHFDOOHUVZKHUHDVORZUHFDOOHUVȇDZDNHQLQJV DERXWWKLVPRUQLQJZKHQEUXVKLQJ\RXU DFFRPSDQLHGE\GUHDPUHFDOOȋ6WLFNJROGWROG
ODVWHGIRUDQDYHUDJHRIRQHPLQXWH WHHWK"2XUPLQGVZDQGHUDOOWKHWLPHEXWZH The New York Times.

Neurochemical soup
GLVFDUGPRVWRIWKRVHWKRXJKWVDVQRQHVVHQWLDO :KHQ\RXJRWREHGUHSHDWHGO\UHPLQGLQJ
LQIRUPDWLRQ'UHDPVHVSHFLDOO\PXQGDQHRQHV yourself that you want to remember your
Our poor ability to encode new memories PLJKWEHMXVWOLNHGD\GUHDPLQJWKRXJKWVDQG GUHDPVPD\LQFUHDVH\RXUFKDQFHVDQGVR
GXULQJVOHHSLVDOVROLQNHGWRFKDQJHVLQWKH GRHVNHHSLQJDGUHDPMRXUQDODVVRPHVWXGLHV
OHYHOVRIWZRQHXURWUDQVPLWWHUVDFHW\OFKROLQH “Dreams, especially KDYHVXJJHVWHG8SRQZDNLQJXSKDQJRQ

mundane ones, may be

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UHWDLQLQJPHPRULHV:KHQDVOHHSDFHW\OFKROLQH H\HVFORVHGVWD\VWLOODQGUHSOD\WKHGUHDP
and noradrenaline drop dramatically. deemed by the brain as PHPRU\RYHUDQGRYHUDJDLQXQWLO\RXU

too useless to recall”

7KHQVRPHWKLQJVWUDQJHKDSSHQVDVZH hippocampus has the chance to catch up and
HQWHUWKHUDSLGH\HPRYHPHQW 5(0 VWDJHRI properly store the memory.

It’s often easier to remember dreams if they

wake you up, which is why people tend to
remember nightmares better than good dreams

47
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Never
forget
a face
We have facial
recognition to thank for Facial recognition helps
humans to make and
our wide social circles maintain strong social bonds

H
umans are highly social and body recognition. It forms part of the babies usually taking around 18 months to
animals, relying on others ventral temporal cortex, which is a series comprehend that they are looking at their
for comfort, safety and of structures involved in the processing of own faces in a mirror. But not everyone is
happiness. We live in large high-level vision and object recognition. A able to pick out a familiar face in a crowd.
groups and often have small part on the lateral side, known as the Some people suffer from prosopagnosia, or
additional connections fusiform face area, appears to play multiple ‘face blindness’, a disorder that prevents
outside of our close circles, and we’re able to parts in recognition, including the ability them from remembering and recognising
do this in part because we possess the ability to distinguish between objects that possess individual faces.
to remember and identify faces. Faces of those very similar features. Even the ability to recognise their own
who are important to us are stored in our Facial recognition isn’t an ability we’re face in a mirror or photo is impaired. The
brains, ready for the next time we encounter born with – poor eyesight and a brain that disorder can arise as a result of brain
them. Even after years apart, old friends can still has a lot of developing to do means that damage, but in some people, the ability to
recognise each other across the street, while babies can’t learn and identify faces right UHFRJQLVHIDFHVQHYHUGHYHORSVLQWKHȴUVW
the face of a stranger walking past fades away. Scientists debate when they begin place. No cure or effective therapy exists
from the memory almost instantly. to recognise familiar faces, with estimates currently, so prosopagnosics often rely on
A part of the brain called the fusiform ranging from two days to two months. Self- other features like voice, gait and clothing in
gyrus is often closely associated with face recognition is a more complex feat, with order to tell people apart.

Have I seen you somewhere before?

We’re not the only ones who can pick out a familiar face
Many social animals can distinguish Often thought of as possessing
kin from strangers, and, like us, they low intelligence, sheep were found
use this ability to maintain bonds to be able to recognise human
with family members and remember faces. When shown a photograph
enemies. For creatures like paper of a person, they were able to pick
wasps, facial recognition is a crucial it out when it was later displayed
tool used with other features like alongside another portrait. More
pheromones to identify an intruder. impressively, they correctly
Dogs can recognise each other selected the face of their handler
and their owners, even identifying without any training.
GL˴HUHQWHPRWLRQVRQKXPDQIDFHV Recognising kin and even
Horses, too, can interpret how both members of other species isn’t
their equine and human uncommon in the animal kingdom,
companions are feeling by looking but self-recognition is a rarity. Aside
at their expressions. Cats, on the from humans, only dolphins, great
other hand, don’t seem to distinguish apes, orcas, magpies and
between human faces; instead, they elephants have shown that they
UHO\RQGL˴HUHQWFXHVVXFKDVVFHQW understand who they are seeing Paper wasps
and voice tone. when they look in a mirror. remember faces with
staggering accuracy

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

48
 N E V E R F O R G E T
A F A C E

“Poor eyesight and a

brain that still has a lot
of developing to do means
that babies can’t learn and
identify faces right away”

Facial recognition
technology
Software can now pick out faces for us
We rely heavily on our ability to recognise
faces, for both social and security purposes.
It’s so important that humans have
developed technology that mimics our
natural capabilities. Facial recognition
technology employs algorithms to look for
distinguishing features or analyse the size,
position and shape of features on a face
captured in an image or video before
searching databases for known faces that
match this information.
Since its development, facial recognition
has been used to prevent fraudulent election
votes, scan crowds for criminals, aid FBI
investigations and compare travellers’ faces
to their passport photos. Many phones and
FRPSXWHUVR˴HUIDFLDOUHFRJQLWLRQDVDPRUH Facial
secure alternative to a password or code. recognition
Not all facial recognition technology is technology maps
applied to security-focused tasks; software and measures
facial features
can also be used to map the shape of a face
so that features can be altered or animated
filters applied in social media apps.

49
UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

50
H O W W E L E A R N

How we
learn
)RUJHWDUWLȴFLDOLQWHOOLJHQFHWKHKXPDQ
EUDLQLVWKHRULJLQDOQHXUDOQHWZRUN

T
he brain is a collection of an
estimated 86 billion neurons,
connected via a communications
network more complex than the
internet. Neurons pass messages
like telephone wires, shooting
electrical impulses at speeds of up to 180 miles
per hour. They exchange signals using packets of
chemicals called neurotransmitters, which can
either tell the next neuron to pass the message
along or to stay quiet. The connections between
neurons are the basis of memory, and making
them is how we learn.
The theory of human learning is founded
on the idea that one brain cell can’t learn on
its own – it’s the connections between brain
cells that make learning possible. In the late
1940s, psychologist Donald Hebb explained that
ȊQHUYHVWKDWȴUHWRJHWKHUZLUHWRJHWKHUȋ7KLV
essentially, means that when brain cells are
repeatedly activated simultaneously, they become

“The theory of human learning is

founded on the idea one brain
cell can’t learn on its own”
© Getty

51
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

The brain’s 5 Neocortex

learning centres
This is the brain’s main storage bank.
The hippocampus transfers learning to
the neocortex while we’re sleeping.
7KHVHȴYHEUDLQDUHDVDUHHVVHQWLDO
IRUOHDUQLQJDQGPHPRU\
5

1 Prefrontal cortex
The very front of the
brain is responsible for
working memory. It
provides short-term 1
storage while
we’re learning.

2 Basal ganglia
This cluster of 3
brain cells manages
motor learning – or
‘muscle memory’ – 4
and the formation
of habits.

3 Amygdala
This small structure is
4 Hippocampus
responsible for the emotional Found in a part of the brain
content of memories. We learn called the temporal lobe, this
better when experiences are structure records past events,
emotionally charged. allowing us to learn from experience.

physically and chemically linked. Learning a

new skill is about strengthening the connections
“Each neuron
makes up to 1,000
between the brain cells that send the signals to
perform that skill. and breathing. It’s fairly delicate, so if they
This concept is called ‘Hebbian learning’, and
at a cellular level, it looks a bit like this: when
connections to others” sense danger, they quickly pull it away. This
UHȵH[XVXDOO\GRHVQȇWKDSSHQLIWKH\IHHOD
one brain cell sends a message to another brain In the real brain, the situation is more gentle touch on their siphon. However, they can
cell, the second cell has to decide whether to pass complex. Communication rarely happens only learn to withdraw from this non-threatening
WKHPHVVDJHDORQJ$WȴUVWLWȇVQRWDOZD\VFOHDU between two cells. In reality, each neuron situation if the connections between their
if the message is important, but if the cell sends makes up to 1,000 connections to others, and neurons are altered.
the same message again and again and again, signals can arrive at once. Each neuron has to Researchers at the University of California
VRPHWKLQJVWDUWVWRFKDQJH7KHȴUVWFHOOVWDUWV weigh up every message it receives and decide attached electrodes to sea slug neurons. They
producing more neurotransmitters so that it can whether to pass it along. Learning is the process chose one neuron from the siphon and another
send a bigger signal, and the second cell makes of balancing those decisions. One of the easiest from the tail, both of which pass messages to a
more receptors so that it can detect the signal ways to see this in action is to look at organisms third neuron that controls siphon movement.
more easily. Together, these changes strengthen with simpler nervous systems than our own. Before the experiment, the movement
the connection between the cells, ensuring the Sea slugs have a remarkable organ called neuron didn’t really respond to messages from
message always gets through. a siphon, which they use for moving, feeding the siphon neuron.

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

52
 H O W W E L E A R N

The most intelligent computer

algorithms are modelled on the
human brain

Artificial neural
networks
AI works in almost the same way
as the human brain. Instead of
thousands of brain cells,
machine learning algorithms
have thousands of nodes. Like a
neuron, each node receives
incoming signals and must
Everything you know is stored in the decide whether to pass them on
connections between your brain cells to the next node. To make this
choice, it gives each signal a

From zero to hero

weight, which determines how
important it is. A higher weight
means a higher chance the
,QYHQWHGE\1RHO%XUFKLQWKHVWKHIRXUVWDJHVRI signal will be passed on. To
begin, all the weights are set at
FRPSHWHQFHH[SODLQKRZZHWKLQNDQGOHDUQ random, so the algorithm is
essentially guessing what to do
1 2 3 4 with each signal. To learn, it
makes tiny changes to the
Unconscious Conscious Conscious Unconscious weights and determines whether
its guess is better or worse than
incompetence incompetence competence competence before. This trial-and-error
The learner is completely The learner becomes The learner practises The learner masters methodology tunes the network,
unaware that they lack aware that there is a gap the skill and starts to the skill. They are strengthening good
the skill, and may even in their understanding. This learn, but they need to now so good at it connections and weakening
be overconfident in can either be motivating concentrate hard to that they can do it
bad ones – exactly like in
their ability. or demoralising. be successful. without thinking.
human learning.

To change this, the researchers passed

electrical impulses along the siphon neuron to
simulate a gentle touch. At the same time, they
passed strong electrical impulses along the tail
neuron to simulate a danger signal. This taught
the synapse that the gentle touch signal meant
that danger might soon be coming. During the
experiment, the connection between the siphon
neuron and the movement neuron strengthened
so much that eventually, a light touch alone was
HQRXJKWRWULJJHUWKHZLWKGUDZDOUHȵH[ZLWKRXW
Without school learning, knowledge Adults find it easier to learn skills related to
© Getty

any danger signal from the tail at all. wouldn’t be gained as quickly skills they have already mastered

53
UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Neurotransmitter
Chemical messages
pass signals from one
neuron to the next. After
learning, the amount of
these each neuron
releases goes up.

Receptors
Receptors detect the
neurotransmitters released
by other neurons and trigger
fresh electrical impulses.
After learning, their numbers
also increase.

Synapse
Neurons pass signals to other
neurons by sending chemicals
called neurotransmitters
across microscopic gaps.

Learning on a
molecular scale
Signals pass from one neuron to
another across microscopic
gaps called synapses. The first
neuron releases small packets
of chemicals called
neurotransmitters, which cross
the gap and hit the second
neuron. Receptors on the
second neuron detect the
neurotransmitters, and if the
signal is strong enough, they
trigger a fresh electrical
impulse. Learning increases the
neurotransmitters the first neuron
releases and boosts the number
of neurotransmitter receptors on
the second neuron. These
changes strengthen the
connection between the cells,
making it easier for them to
exchange signals in the future.

Myelin sheath Astrocyte

Star-shaped support
Wraps of myelin insulate the
cells tune the speed of
electrical signals passing along
communication by
axons, allowing them to travel
controlling the thickness
faster and without interference.
of the insulation around
each neuron.

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

54
 H O W W E L E A R N

Neuron Tuning the

brain’s
Neurons send messages
across the brain by

connections
passing electrical
signals down long, thin
structures called axons.

5 Facts
2QDPLFURVFRSLFOHYHOOHDUQLQJLVDOO
About your
DERXWWKHFRQQHFWLRQVEHWZHHQEUDLQFHOOV neurons

1 They have
three parts
The cell body houses
genetic code and protein
factories. Dendrites receive
incoming signals, and the
axon passes electrical
messages to other cells.

2 There are
three types
Sensory neurons detect
touch, taste, light, sound
and smell. Motor neurons
send signals to the muscles,
and interneurons connect
other neurons together.

3 They don’t
live forever
Like us, nerve cells in the
brain and body get old and
die. Loss of neurons
contributes to diseases such
as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s
and Huntington’s.

4 They need support

Neurons rely on other
cells to do their job
properly. Astrocytes
maintain chemical
balance, oligodendrocytes
insulate electrical signals
Oligodendrocyte
and microglia guard
These fatty cells wind
around the axons of nerve against infection.

5
cells like the plastic
around electrical wires. They can regenerate
Researchers once
thought brain cell
regeneration was
© Alamy / Science Photo Library

Sheath thickening impossible. Now we know

During learning, cells called that, even in adults, there
oligodendrocytes coat nerve
cells in extra myelin, increasing are stem cells capable of
the speed of nerve conduction. creating new neurons.

55
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Why we lose
our childhood
memories Discover why we have very few
memories before age seven

W
hether it’s the day your psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, and it has
sister was born, the day remained a mystery to researchers for
you took a toy from your more than a century. Years ago, scientists
EURWKHURUWKHȴUVWWLPH thought that children’s brains couldn’t
you fell off your bike, make lasting memories, but we now know
it’s likely that you were that babies aged just six months can form
probably around the age of three or four when short-term memories that last minutes and
\RXKDG\RXUȴUVWPHPRU\DVPRVWRIXVGRQȇW long-term memories that last weeks, while
tend to recall memories before this age. Some ȴYH\HDUROGVKDYHPHPRULHVWKDWFDQODVW
adults, however, may recall memories from the years. But as we reach the age of seven, we tend
age of two, while others may not remember to start losing our earliest memories.
anything until the age of seven or eight. Even 'XULQJWKHȴUVWIHZ\HDUVRIRXUOLYHVRXU
the memories we have between the ages of brains make millions of connections (synapses)
three and seven are patchy; of the events deep within an area known as the hippocampus.
we experience during childhood, we’ll only It is here that we form episodic memories –
remember a few – and even less as we age. recollections of events that have happened to us.
This phenomenon, known as ‘infantile Our earlier memories are more vulnerable to memories gradually become more adult-like and
amnesia’, was coined by the father of being forgotten, but by the age of 11, our episodic continue to mature until our late teens.
Back in 1953, a 27-year-old man named Henry
Gustav Molaison (more commonly known as
H.M.) underwent experimental neurosurgery
to control his debilitating epilepsy. Surgeons
removed Molaison’s hippocampus as well as
some of the surrounding area. Although the
surgery reduced his seizures, Molaison could no
longer form new long-term memories. He could,
however, still remember facts about the world
from before his operation. Before Molaison’s
operation, it was thought that memories were
stored throughout the brain. But his surgery
revolutionised our understanding of memory,
showing that the hippocampus is important for
episodic and autobiographical memories and
that different parts of the brain are responsible
for different types of memory.
Having made lots of brain connections
during our childhoods, we have far more
in our early years than we will eventually
end up with during adulthood. This process

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

56
 W H Y W E L O S E O U R
C H I L D H O O D M E M O R I E S

Why do some
childhood
memories
survive?
Memories that have a lot
of emotion attached to
them are less likely to fade
Despite the brain’s pruning
process, some memories can
survive, although we’re not
completely sure why. These
tend to be those that have
emotional significance;
perhaps you were bitten by a

“Our earliest memories sister showed you a picture of your amazing dog and needed stitches, or
you broke your arm at school.
may not be Being injured could be an
ȴUVWELUWKGD\FDNHRU\RXUPXPWROG\RXDERXW
when you thought it would be funny to paint your evolutionary trait – those who
memories but instead brother. Our early memories are malleable – each remember the experience are
(hopefully) less likely to be
have been moulded
time a story is told, some parts can be lost or
injured again and are,
changed, and newer parts can be incorporated. As therefore, more likely to
from photos or stories” children, we are much more likely than adults to
form these false memories.
survive into adulthood.
In other cases, turning the
is known as ‘synaptic pruning’, the brain’s Intriguingly, the average age at which we
incident into a story that has a
sequence of events with a
version of natural selection. This process helps KDYHRXUȴUVWPHPRULHVFDQYDU\E\WZR time and place will make it
to sculpt our childhood/teenage brain into a years between different cultures. While a Maori less likely to be forgotten.
PRUHHɚFLHQWDGXOWYHUVLRQUHPRYLQJZHDN New Zealander may recall being at a family Perhaps you recall playing
football with friends and
unused or unnecessary connections and leaving wedding at the age of two and a half, a South
tripping over in the school
VWURQJHUDQGPRUHHɚFLHQWFRQQHFWLRQVVRWKDW Korean adult may not remember anything playground, landing
you can learn more. until the age of four and a half. The Maori’s awkwardly on your arm. Or
Even our earliest memories may not be emphasis on the past and retelling family stories maybe you were playing on
the road after school when a
memories but instead have been moulded from means that they have the earliest memories of
neighbour’s dog bit you? As
photos or stories, even if they are based on real any culture, and their highly detailed narrative we get older and develop our
events. But even more surprisingly, roughly VW\OHLQȵXHQFHVZKDWWKHLUFKLOGUHQZLOO language skills, we become
40 per cent of us have completely made up remember in later life. more descriptive, meaning
memories become vivid as we
GHWDLOVRIRXUȴUVWPHPRU\ Cultures that also value personal autonomy retell them, which makes them
Our brains can’t store episodic memories tend to have earlier – and more – memories than easier to remember.
© Getty

until we’re at least two years old. Perhaps your cultures that value relatedness more.

57
UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Lifestyle,
activities and
daily habits have
a huge impact on
the brain and
memory

Age-related W
e all forget things from
time to time – where
we’ve put the keys,
someone’s name or

memory loss
why we went upstairs.
If you’re in your 20s,
you’re probably not too concerned, but for
people in their 60s and beyond, these lapses in
memory can be more alarming and frustrating.
We fear that they may be the start of a more

Our memory may not be what it once was, serious brain disease like dementia.
As we get older, most of us will get more
but it’s a normal part of ageing forgetful – roughly 40 per cent of over-65s
experience some age-related memory loss – but

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

58
 A G E - R E L A T E D
M E M O R Y L O S S

Brain cells continue to

grow even in our 90s.
Brain-stimulating games
such as chess may help
slow down brain decline

WKLVUHȵHFWVQRUPDOFKDQJHVLQWKHIXQFWLRQRI
“After the age of 40,
the brain’s volume
the ageing brain. As our brains start to shrink,
some parts of the brain, like the hippocampus,
a structure deep within the brain that
decreases by five per
cent each decade and
processes our memories, and the prefrontal
cortex, which is responsible for language and
behaviour, shrink more than other parts. The
older we get, the more susceptible these parts
more so after 70”
of the brain are to ageing, taking us longer to reduction in synaptic connections, which help
learn, recall and recognise new information. pass messages between cells. This reduction
It has been found that after the age of 40, the means that it takes longer to process a
EUDLQȇVYROXPHGHFUHDVHVE\ȴYHSHUFHQWHDFK memory. Research also suggests that the brain
decade, and more so after the age of 70. generates fewer chemical messengers, known
The brain’s white matter contains nerve as neurotransmitters, which include serotonin
ȴEUHVWKDWDUHVXUURXQGHGDQGSURWHFWHGE\D and dopamine, with advancing age, which can
fat-rich substance called myelin. It is the nerve also lead to memory problems. Like humans,
ȴEUHVWKDWFDUU\PHVVDJHVEHWZHHQEUDLQFHOOV However, as we age, the branching out of dogs can also
experience
and during ageing, the myelin sheath also dendrites, tree-like parts of a neuron, age-related
shrinks, thereby reducing the speed at which a may increase, and connections between cognitive
neuron can communicate with another neuron distant brain regions can strengthen. decline

DQGPDNLQJLWDELWPRUHGLɚFXOWWRUHWULHYH This means that older people may have

an old memory or store a new one. better judgment and are more rational
The outer covering of the brain, the cerebral decision-makers than their juniors. After all,
© Getty

cortex, is also prone to thinning as a result of a with age comes wisdom.

59
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

The power
of active recall
How can we train our brains to remember
facts on demand? Every time a
memory is

H
recalled,
ave you ever heard a fact for an upcoming test or to impress at an synapses in the
you found so impressive it interview without it being something we are brain retrieve it
never left your memory? truly passionate about. Sometimes, we may more easily

The key
This is because you need to enforce these steps while studying
understood its meaning, and so that we can retrieve the information at a
it interested you; the more
you thought about it, the more it stuck in your
crucial time.
Reading over information often won’t be
steps
Follow the process to
mind. You probably went and told your friends enough. While you might understand what building up your

1
and family, repeating the fact. Every time you you are reading, unless you can demonstrate active recall
did this, you further consolidated it in your your new knowledge by recalling the Take in information
long-term memory. information without looking at an aid, it Read or listen to the
This is what active recall is. It is all about is less likely to make the transition from information you are trying
actively processing the information and your short-term memory to your long-term to retain. Don’t just skim
through the words and
repeating it until it becomes a more accessible memory. Active recall helps to do this by sentences but try and make
part of your memory. The issue with some strengthening pathways in your brain, while sense of them in your head.

2
facts is that we might need to learn them passive learning is more temporary.
Test yourself
Using only your brain
Studies have shown that those and without prompts, try
who use active recall techniques and remember what you have
perform 50 per cent better in test just learned. Speak aloud or
write it down from memory.

3
than those who learn passively

Take your time

At the first attempt at
recall, your brain’s
memory pathway is weak.
Make a guess if necessary, but
don’t force memories that
clearly aren’t there.

4 Check yourself
When checking the
information again, you
may kick yourself at facts you
forgot. This is because they are
still in your memory. Focus on
these to strengthen the
neurological pathway
needed to retrieve the
information next time.

5 Repeat the steps

Follow the steps again
multiple times. It is best
to do this over the space of a
couple of days, as this tests
your ability to remember
information even after a
prolonged period of time not
focusing on it.

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

60
 T H E P O W E R O F
A C T I V E R E C A L L

How to naturally
improve your memory Find out which lifestyle choices are the best for your brain

I
’ve got a memory like a sieve,’ stuck with the memory you have today, and HɚFLHQF\$OWKRXJKFRJQLWLYHDELOLW\RIWHQ
\RXPD\ȴQG\RXUVHOIXWWHULQJ with just a few lifestyle changes, you could declines with age, through understanding
as you fail to remember the become better at recalling information when what conditions your body and brain need to
details of an event, surrendering you really need it thrive, you can use these methods as tools to
to forgetfulness as if it were As your brain is responsible for storing make your memory the best it can be. From
inevitable. But what if you knew and retrieving all information and events, JHQHUDOȴWQHVVWRVFKHGXOHGUHOD[DWLRQKRZ
of ways to naturally improve your memory? for you to bring memories forward easier can making changes in your everyday life
According to science, you aren’t necessarily you need to keep your brain at its optimum help you to remember?

A happy brain Key lifestyle changes to keep your brain healthy and improve memory

Elephant

Exercise regularly Brain training Drink less alcohol Explore meditation Get enough sleep
Physical activity has been Your cognitive skills get better People who drink regularly Your working memory is When you sleep, it enables
proven to have a direct with practice. By engaging in make around 30 per cent where new information is the neuron connections in the
positive impact on the health brain games, your frontal more memory mistakes than temporarily held, and brain to strengthen. This
of your brain. As exercise lobe learns to divide attention those who don’t. Alcohol can mindfulness can strengthen causes information to travel
increases the oxygen in your between mental tasks. This prevent the ability to turn this. Most adults can hold to more permanent areas of
brain, it stimulates brain will keep neuron connections short-term memories into seven items in their working the brain to consolidate
growth and also reduces the in the brain activated, long-term ones as well as memory, but meditation can memories. So make sure that
risk of cognitive decline. LPSURYLQJWKHLUH˵FLHQF\ reducing brain cell size. help increase this number. you get enough sleep!

Focus in situations Keep vitamin D Cherish your friends Manage stress Maintain a
Taking the time to ensure that levels high Believe it or not, simply Too much stress can actually healthy weight
Elephant
you understand information Links have been discovered keeping an active social life damage the brain cells Consuming more calories
makes it easier to recall it between vitamin D levels and can do wonders for your responsible for memory than your body needs causes
later. Neural circuits that build cognitive ability. Studies show memory and general brain formation and retrieval. It’s weight gain as well as
long-term memories work that those who are deficient health. Those who socialise important to try to find the influencing cognitive ability.
PRUHH˵FLHQWO\ZKHQZH in the vitamin lose their with friends the most tend to right balance between work Hormones released by fat
PDNHWKHH˴RUWWRDFWLYHO\ memory quicker than those have the lowest rate of and leisure and understand can cause parts of the brain
© Getty

focus on surroundings. who aren’t. cognitive decline. the symptoms of stress. to become inflamed.

61
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Can the brain 1Frontal lobe

This is the brain’s largest lobe,

rewire itself?
responsible for memory, motor and
social skills. It has high plasticity, and
its chemistry adapts to experiences
more than other areas.

Your brain needs to adapt and change throughout your life

Y
our brain reaches its full you can build up their strength through
size by early adolescence repetition. Younger people generally have
and fully matures by around greater neuroplasticity, as their brains
the age of 25. But did you haven’t changed as much yet. The more a
know that your brain will neural pathway is used, the stronger it is and
continue to change forever, the harder it is for your brain to rewire away 1
moulding itself around your physical from it. You can also alter your brain’s map
condition, emotional experiences and by weakening pathways that are having
daily activities? The constant adaptation negative reactions. For example, when
to good and bad events, and the trillions in chronic pain, your brain may be
RIVLJQDOVȴULQJLQ\RXUEUDLQHYHU\GD\LV overreacting to sensation signals.
called neuroplasticity. Pain-reprocessing therapy is one
Thanks to studies into the brain using way in which sufferers attempt to
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners rewire the brain by consciously
to study neural activity, scientists now thinking of the sensations in
know that the brain’s function isn’t a positive way to prevent
Did you this overinterpretation.
ȴ[HG(YHU\WKRXJKWVHQVDWLRQ
know?
and emotion felt is the work of the You have over The brain impacts
brain’s 86 billion neurons. These 6,000 thoughts a every action in the
neurons pass signals between each day on average body, so it uses 20 per
other to spread information to core cent of the body’s total 3
processing regions of the brain. These energy requirements to
signals can travel at 300 miles per hour, function. The more stressed
releasing chemicals between the cells to you are, the less available
establish pathways. These are like chemical energy there is that can be
memories, forming pathways that work used to shape and reshape your
PRUHHɚFLHQWO\WKHPRUHLQIRUPDWLRQLV brain effectively. Continuing to
passed through them. However, just as these learn new things throughout your

3 Temporal lobe
pathways are built up and strengthened, lifetime is one of the best ways to
they can also be weakened and other improve and maintain cognitive
The temporal lobe processes information
routes prioritised. health, keeping your neural connections about sound, interpreting signals from the
When you engage in a new activity or evolving and choosing the healthiest ears. Musical training can make this analysis
skill, you form new neural pathways. These ways for your brain’s complex circuitry to PRUHH˵FLHQWWUDLQLQJWKHEUDLQWR
GL˴HUHQWLDWHEHWZHHQPRUHVRXQGV
pathways are weak to begin with, but wire and rewire.

Regions can’t be repurposed

Some scientists have concluded that the ILQJHUV%\XVLQJQHUYHEORFNHUVLQRQHILQJHU
brain’s neuroplasticity is so advanced it can she analysed the signals responsible for
repurpose and rewire its regions outside of sensing touch in that finger in the brain.
their original roles. For example, someone When the nerve was no longer working, the
who loses their sight could use the vision- brain region didn’t contribute to other nerves.
processing region of the brain – the visual Instead, the signals allocated to
FRUWH[²WRSURFHVVGL˴HUHQWVHQVHV%XW the remaining nerves increased in strength.
others disagree. Researcher Tamar Makin Makin argued that brains don’t repurpose
carried out a study in 2022 to assess the their regions, but the remaining senses
In the brain of a blind person, the neural connections for
claim that nerve signals from an amputated are heightened to accommodate the loss
touch will be stronger than those for sight, as they rely
finger can be reallocated to the remaining through repetition and signal strengthening. on these sensations for activities like reading braille

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

62
 C A N T H E B R A I N
R E W I R E I T S E L F ?

Plasticity of parts
Children can learn a second
language more easily as their
brains are more adaptable
5 Facts
Ways the
How much can each region of the brain be altered? brain
changes

1 Learning
new skills
As you learn, new
neural connections are
made in the brain.
Everything you learn
begins as a short-term
memory and is
transferred to long-
term memory as
2 neural connections

2 Parietal lobe
become stronger.

2
This lobe processes sensory
information and language Brain injury
SURFHVVLQJ%LOLQJXDOVSHDNHUV recovery
build more grey matter in this :KHQ\RXVX˴HUD
area, which has more neurons significant head injury,
than white matter. memory training can
change neural pathways
in the brain to enhance
cognitive function. These
rely on other areas that
still function.

3 Exercising
the brain
When you
perform physical
exercise, a protein that
promotes neural growth,
called brain-derived
neurotrophic factor
%11) LVUHOHDVHG7KLV
improves cognitive
function and
connectivity in the brain.

4
4 Forming
habits
The repetition of
habits produces
automatic neural
connections in the brain.
The area of the
brain called the basal
ganglia is responsible
for subconscious habits.
As neural pathways
become more
5 H˵FLHQWKDELWVDUH
harder to break.

4 Occipital lobe
Visual information is processed
by brain cells in this area. This lobe
is still active in blind people when
5 Cognitive
behavioural
therapy
This form of therapy is
an active way to change
other senses are used, suggesting a
rewiring of the brain. neural pathways in the

6 Brain stem
EUDLQ%\FKDQJLQJ
habitual behaviours for

5 Cerebellum
The brain stem’s nervous tissue new, healthier ones,
regulates reflex actions like breathing, 6 GL˴HUHQWFRQQHFWLRQV
blood pressure and consciousness. In The cerebellum controls balance and become stronger
reflex plasticity, neural pathways muscle movement. Its signals can change and alter thought
© Shutterstock

change to bypass damaged areas to improve movements, making them patterns to avoid
and retain vital responses. more precise with relevant practice. negative emotions.

63
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

What is muscle
1

memory?
How neural shortcuts in your brain make
practised activities feel familiar

W
hen you move from one side of the room
to the other, how much do you analyse
the action? For most people, the series of
muscle movements that allow them to
get around on a daily basis is automatic.
But when babies are born, their brains
haven’t formed the neural connection with their walking 2
muscles in order to stand and balance. Through trial and
error, they begin to master walking on two feet. Eventually,
when they’ve discovered the movements required for
walking, the neural pathways are fully formed. From this
point onwards, walking becomes a natural motion that
requires little conscious thought.
Have you ever learned to ride a bike, play tunes on an
instrument or mastered a sport over several years? Now
that you have these skills, they’re unlikely to suddenly
7
1
vanish. For example, you might not have ridden a bike for
several years, but you’ll still be able to ride one and stay in Long-term memory
control of it with no additional lessons or guidance. Despite The brain stores repeated
being called muscle memory, the body part responsible movements in long-term memory.
for retaining these skills is the brain. A region of the brain This means muscle movements can
called the motor cortex sends signals to the muscles needed be performed with little thought.
for each skill, with precise instructions to execute physical
movements with accuracy. The more these signals are
delivered through messenger nerve cells called neurons, 2 Skeletal muscles
These muscles, which move the
8
the smoother each resulting action is. When these become body’s skeleton, are responsible for
stored in your long-term memory, skill-based memories like performing the motor tasks to be
riding a bike are recalled as soon as you sit in the saddle. stored as muscle memory.

Athlete accuracy
If you observe a professional athlete in the connect their mind and the rest of their body
middle of a football match or launching mean that while the brain focuses on the
themselves over a high jump bar, the ease tactics of the competition, the body can
of their movements can seem incredible. perform complex moves without much
These are not superpowers but the work of conscious thought. An additional benefit to
perfected muscle memory. Due to their muscle memory in professional
relentless training schedules, the muscles sportspeople is that it allows them to take
that they need to control the dribble of a breaks from the sport. Even though they may
ball or expertly arch themselves over ORVHILWQHVVGXULQJR˴VHDVRQPRQWKVQRW
obstacles in athletics are almost long after returning to training, their muscles High jumpers learn the Fosbury flop – a
pre-programmed. The strong neural can bounce back to the work they were technique which involves arching the back over
connections that they have made to previously trained for. the bar to keep the centre of mass below it

T H E B I O L O G Y
O F M E M O R Y

64
 W H A T I S M U S C L E
M E M O R Y ?

How do muscles 3 Fasciculus

4 Sarcoplasm
5 Perimysium
5 muscle
‘remember’
Bundles of nerve This is the water- This connective
fibre strands in the based cytoplasm of tissue sheath
memory
movements? muscles connect to
the central nervous
the muscle, which is
responsible for storing
surrounds a muscle’s
fibre bundles and tactics
The repetition of movements creates a
strong connection between the
muscles and brain
system and relay and releasing calcium protects them from
to try

1
signals from the brain ions. Calcium is forceful muscle
to muscles. needed for muscle contractions. Prioritise
contraction to practice
be initiated. Practise your new
sport or skill in regular
and short training
sessions. The more your
brain is exposed to
muscle patterns, the
quicker it will remember
and master them.

3 2 Avoid
bad habits
Muscle memory
can arise in any
movement. Make sure
you don’t pick up bad
habits or your brain will
hold onto these and you
will naturally use
these techniques.

3 Skill
breakdown
'L˴HUHQWVNLOOVFDQ
involve a series of
complex movements.
Focus on each element
of the movement first to
make them easier to
5 combine correctly.

4 Switch up the
environment
When training in
the same place or
environment, you can
4 limit your muscle
memory. To make sure
your muscles are firing
6 FRUUHFWO\LQGL˴HUHQW
scenarios, don’t
make every practice
session identical.

6 Muscle fibre
The higher the 8 Actin filament
This protein filament
People say that you never
forget how to ride a bike
5 Take your time
Nobody becomes
an expert
overnight. Muscle
number of nuclei in is a mechanical memory relies on
muscle fibres, the component of the consistency and
long-term repetition.
greater the muscle muscle that guides the
memory capacity. direction of contractions
as it slides along the

7 Myosin
These proteins in
myosin filament. After
repetitive contractions,
the muscles create such as in weightlifting,
© Getty / Alamy

force that gives the the number of actin

muscles strength to filaments in the muscles
lift, push or pull. used increases.

65
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Generational
memory
Do we know things before we’re born based on the experiences of those before us?

Y
our genes make you who you DWWHPSWVLWVȴUVWVWHSVZLWKOLWWOHJXLGDQFHIURP study showed that athletes who had been born
are. They’re inherited from its parent, all from instinct. blind made the same disheartened expressions
your parents, and theirs from As well as our basic instincts, our genetics can when losing as athletes with sight, suggesting
their parents before them, carry more complex abilities, knowledge and that facial expressions may not be something
going all the way back to the conditioning. One example of inherited behaviour we learn from watching others.
WLPHKXPDQVȴUVWHPHUJHG H[KLELWVLWVHOIWKURXJKUHȵH[HVWKDWNHHSXVVDIH While genetics play a part, infants are also
Along the way, they’ve picked up traits that in situations where we perceive danger, such as KHDYLO\LQȵXHQFHGGXULQJWKHLUWLPHLQWKH
help us survive as a species, diversifying for pulling our hand back when it meets something womb. Mothers who eat strong-tasting foods
humans living in different parts of the world hot or jumping when we’re startled. such as garlic can affect the taste buds of
with distinct needs and evolving along with the Findings have also hinted that our emotional WKHLUFKLOGUHQJLYLQJWKHPDQDɚQLW\IRUWKH
environments around us. responses and facial expressions could be
Much of this is encoded as natural instinct. hard-wired behaviours. Babies start to smile “Inherited behaviour
When a baby is born, it doesn’t need to be taught
how to breathe or cry when it needs attention –
and laugh at around two and four months
respectively – again, this isn’t something they’re
exhibits itself through
this is hard-wired into our DNA. We know that HYHUVSHFLȴFDOO\WDXJKW$OWKRXJKWKH\PD\WDNH reflexes that keep us
when we’re tired we need to sleep and when
we’re hungry we need to eat. The same goes for
in the expressions and moods of those they
grow up around, it’s hard to test if they connect
safe, such as jumping
animals. Within two hours of being born, a foal emotion to the faces they see. However, a 2009 when we’re startled”

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 G E N E R A T I O N A L
M E M O R Y

Inherent animal
behaviours
How fear was shown to be passed
down through generations of mice
In a 2013 study to explore if phobias and
anxiety can be transferred genetically,
neuroscientists from Emory University in
Atlanta, Georgia, trained male mice to fear
the scent of cherry blossoms by associating it
with a mild shock. These mice were then
EUHGDQGWKHLUR˴VSULQJZHUHUDLVHGZLWKRXW
ever being exposed to the smell. Upon
reaching adulthood the second-generation
mice were introduced to the same smell.
Despite never experiencing the shock
themselves, the scent alone was enough for
same tastes later in life. Taste and smell are never heard it, meaning this could be true for them to exhibit signs of anxiety and fear. It
important triggers that babies look for when humans too. was also discovered that their noses had
more neurons specifically designed to detect
ȴUVWIHHGLQJDVWKHPRWKHUȇVPLONZLOOFDUU\WKH Generational memory could also help explain this scent, as well as more brain space
VDPHȵDYRXUVH[SHULHQFHGLQWKHZRPE7KLV why certain people are naturally gifted in dedicated to recognising it. So this wasn’t just
pre-birth taste sampling may have developed areas such as music, sport or mathematics. It’s a behavioural change – it was physical, too.
Even more surprising was that when these
as a way to teach newborns to feed, increasing argued that they could be unlocking knowledge
mice were bred, the grandchildren of the
WKHLUFKDQFHVRIVXUYLYDO7KLVSUHQDWDOȵDYRXU stored from ancestry, tapping into the talent original mice exhibited a similar reaction to
learning is also seen in other mammals such as of generations ago. The problem is that the the scent. The experiment confirmed that
rabbits, cats and dogs. existence of generational memory is hard to genetic markers could be used to transmit a
traumatic experience to future generations.
Whether we have a predisposition to a certain prove, since there are so many environmental
We acquire these epigenetic markers
language is still something that’s contested – and outside factors that change behaviour and throughout our lives by learning and
including whether our parents’ native tongue personality, especially with young minds, interacting with our environment. Teaching
comes more naturally to us through genetics or which are so easily moulded. However, the the next generation what to be fearful of
without them experiencing the trauma could
merely from exposure. However, what is clear theory is starting to be taken more seriously,
help the survival of a species.
is that humans have a biological preparedness and studies involving short-generation life
for learning a language, often speaking in full forms such as nematode worms are making
sentences by the age of four. Again, prenatal VLJQLȴFDQWEUHDNWKURXJKV:HPD\VRRQKDYH
OHDUQLQJFRXOGLQȵXHQFHWKLVDVLWȇVEHHQSURYHQ undeniable proof that our genetics pass down
that a baby can hear sounds (the part of the more than we think.
brain that processes these noises can become
active in the last trimester).
Looking to the animal kingdom, fairy wrens
also ‘speak’ to their eggs in this way, with the
PRWKHUVLQJLQJDVSHFLȴFVRQJWKDWKHUFKLFNV
will later chirp back to her once hatched.
This is used as a way to identify each other,
almost like a mother-child password. However,
suboscine birds seem to have the song of their
species ingrained. Chicks hatched from eggs
Mice have amazing memories and are known
© Getty

incubated in soundproof solitude are able to It’s not just visual traits that are passed down from never to forget a route once they’ve memorised it
produce the correct call for their species having parent to child

67
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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

10 Mysteries
of the mind
Much of what we don’t understand about being human is simply in our
heads. The brain is a befuddling organ, as are the very questions of
life and death, consciousness, sleep, and much more

Consciousness
When you wake up in the morning,
you might perceive that the Sun is just
rising, hear a few birds chirping, and
PD\EHHYHQIHHODȵDVKRIKDSSLQHVV
as the fresh morning air hits your face.
In other words, you are conscious.
This complex topic has plagued
WKHVFLHQWLȴFFRPPXQLW\VLQFHDQWLTXLW\2QO\UHFHQWO\
have neuroscientists considered consciousness a realistic
UHVHDUFKWRSLF7KHVLJQLȴFDQWEUDLQWHDVHULQWKLVȴHOGKDV
been to explain how processes in the brain give rise to
subjective experiences. So far, scientists have managed to
GHYHORSDJUHDWOLVWRITXHVWLRQV

Deep Freeze
Living forever may not be a reality, but a
SLRQHHULQJȴHOGFDOOHGFU\RQLFVFRXOGJLYH
some people two lives. Cryonics centres
like the Alcor Life Extension Foundation
LQ$UL]RQDVWRUHGHFHDVHGERGLHVLQYDWVȴOOHGZLWKOLTXLG
nitrogen at bone-chilling temperatures of -320 degrees
Fahrenheit (-195 degrees Celsius). The idea is that a person
who dies from a presently incurable disease could be thawed
and revived in the future when a cure has been found. The
body of the late baseball legend Ted Williams is stored in one
of Alcor’s freezers. Like the other human Popsicles, Williams
is positioned head-down. That way, if there were ever a leak
in the tank, the brain would stay submerged in the cold
OLTXLG1RWRQHRIWKHFU\RSUHVHUYHGERGLHVKDVEHHQUHYLYHG
because that technology doesn’t exist. For one, if the body
isn’t thawed at exactly the right temperature, the person’s
cells could turn to ice and explode into pieces.

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 1 0 M Y S T E R I E S
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Mortal Mystery
Living forever is just for Hollywood, but why do humans age?
<RXDUHERUQZLWKDUREXVWWRROER[IXOORIPHFKDQLVPVWRȴJKW
disease and injury, which you might think should arm you
against stiff joints and other ailments. But as we age, the body’s
repair mechanisms get out of shape. In effect, your resilience to
physical injury and stress declines. Theories for why people age can be divided
into two categories: 1) Like other human characteristics, ageing could simply
EHDSDUWRIKXPDQJHQHWLFVDQGLVVRPHKRZEHQHȴFLDO ,QWKHOHVVRSWLPLVWLF
view, ageing has no purpose and results from cellular damage occurring over
a person’s lifetime. A handful of researchers, however, think science will
ultimately delay ageing for at least long enough to double people’s lifespans.

Nature Vs Nurture
In the long-running that it could be either or both. The
battle of whether ability to study individual genes points
our thoughts and to many human traits that we have
personalities are little control over, yet in many realms
controlled by our peer pressure or upbringing has been
genes or our environment, scientists are VKRZQWRKHDYLO\LQȵXHQFHZKRZHDUH
building a convincing body of evidence and what we do.

Brain Teaser
Laughter is one of the least understood
of human behaviours. Scientists have
found that during a good laugh, three
parts of the brain light up: a thinking
part that helps you get the joke, a
movement area that tells your muscles to move, and an
emotional region that elicits the ‘giddy’ feeling. But it’s not
known why one person laughs at your dad’s foolish jokes
while another chuckles while watching a horror movie.
John Morreall, who is a pioneer of humour research
at the College of William and Mary, has found that
laughter is a playful response to incongruities – stories
WKDWGLVREH\FRQYHQWLRQDOH[SHFWDWLRQV2WKHUVSRLQWWR
Images: Getty

laughter as a way of signalling to another person that

WKLVDFWLRQLVPHDQWȆLQIXQȇ2QHWKLQJLVFOHDUODXJKWHU
makes us feel better.

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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Memory Lane
6RPHH[SHULHQFHVDUHKDUGWRIRUJHWOLNHSHUKDSV\RXUȴUVW
kiss. But how does a person hold onto these personal movies?
8VLQJEUDLQLPDJLQJWHFKQLTXHVVFLHQWLVWVDUHXQUDYHOOLQJWKH
mechanism responsible for creating and storing memories.
They are revealing that the hippocampus, located within the
brain’s grey matter, could act as a memory box. But this storage area isn’t so
discriminatory. It turns out that both true and false memories activate similar
brain regions. To pull out the real memory, some researchers ask a subject
WRUHFDOOWKHPHPRU\LQFRQWH[WVRPHWKLQJWKDWȇVPXFKPRUHGLɚFXOWWRGR
when the event didn’t actually occur.

Mission Control
Residing in the digestion, body temperature, blood
hypothalamus pressure and hormone production.
of the brain, the Researchers have found that light
suprachiasmatic nucleus, intensity can adjust the clock forward or
or biological clock, backwards by regulating the hormone
programs the body to follow a 24-hour melatonin. The latest debate is whether
rhythm. The most evident effect of or not melatonin supplements could help
circadian rhythm is the sleep-wake cycle, prevent jet lag – the drowsy, achy feeling
but the biological clock also impacts you get when ‘jetting’ across time zones.

Phantom
Feelings
Around 80 per cent of amputees may
experience sensations, including
warmth, itching, pressure and pain,
coming from their missing limb. People who experience
this ‘phantom limb’ phenomenon feel sensations as if the
PLVVLQJOLPEZHUHVWLOOWKHUH2QHH[SODQDWLRQLVWKDWWKH
nerves in the area where the limb was severed create
new connections to the spinal cord and continue to send
signals to the brain. Another possibility is that the brain
is ‘hard-wired’ to operate as if the body were fully intact,
meaning that the brain holds a blueprint of the body with
all of its original parts attached.

Gholipour
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Slumber Sleuth
)UXLWȵLHVGRLW7LJHUVGRLW$QGKXPDQVFDQȇWVHHP
WRJHWHQRXJKRILW1RQRWWKDW:HȇUHWDONLQJDERXW
VKXWH\HVRFUXFLDOZHVSHQGPRUHWKDQDTXDUWHURIRXU
lives at it. Yet the underlying reasons for sleep remain
DVSX]]OLQJDVDUDPEOLQJGUHDP2QHWKLQJVFLHQWLVWV
do know is that sleep is crucial for survival in mammals. Extended
sleeplessness can lead to mood swings, hallucinations, and, in extreme
cases, death. There are two states of sleep: non-rapid eye movement
15(0 GXULQJZKLFKWKHEUDLQH[KLELWVORZPHWDEROLFDFWLYLW\DQG
rapid eye movement (REM), during which the brain is very active. Some
VFLHQWLVWVWKLQN15(0VOHHSJLYHV\RXUERG\DEUHDNDQGLQWXUQFRQVHUYHV
energy, similar to hibernation. REM sleep could help to organise memories.
However, this idea isn’t proven, and dreams during REM sleep don’t always
correlate with memories.

Sweet
Dreams
If you were to ask ten people what dreams
are made of, you’d probably get ten
different answers. That’s because scientists
DUHVWLOOXQUDYHOOLQJWKLVP\VWHU\2QHSRVVLELOLW\LVWKDWGUHDPLQJH[HUFLVHV
WKHEUDLQE\VWLPXODWLQJWKHWUDɚFNLQJRIV\QDSVHVEHWZHHQEUDLQFHOOV
Another theory is that people dream about tasks and emotions they didn’t
Images: Getty

take care of during the day and that the process can help solidify thoughts
and memories. In general, scientists agree that dreaming happens during
your deepest sleep, which is called rapid eye movement (REM).

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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Have you read

this before?
Discover the science of déjà vu and the technique used to trigger it

A
round 70 per cent of us respond by creating a memory that didn’t
experience it – people aged really happen. However, an experiment led
15–25 in particular – and by psychology researcher Akira O’Connor
it can be one of the most in 2016 revealed that this might not be
jarring feelings: déjà vu. the case. Rather than false memory, the
French for ‘already seen’, brain is memory-checking and sending an
it has previously been linked to the theory error message, signalling what we have
of false memories: the idea that we can view actually experienced versus what we think we
something once and when exposed to a scene have experienced. Around 70 per cent of us
or situation that is similar, the brain will experience… wait a minute… Déjà vu is more common in younger
people, becoming less frequent as we age

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 H A V E Y O U R E A D
T H I S B E F O R E ?

O’Connor’s experiment
+RZGLGVFLHQWLVWVDUWLȴFLDOO\WULJJHUG«M¢YXLQWKHVWXG\ȇVYROXQWHHUV"
Step 1 Step 3
Participants were given a Later on, the volunteers
list of words to remember were asked if the word
including ‘bed’, ‘pillow’, ‘sleep’ was included in
‘dream’ and ‘doze’; all the previous list of words.
words that are This prompted a feeling
connected, in this case, of déjà vu.
to the word ‘sleep’.

Step 2
They were then asked if
any of the words in the
list began with the
letter ‘S’. Each person
correctly said no.

Step 4
Those experiencing the Step 5
phenomena were Scans revealed that the memory
scanned using functional centre of the brain, the hippocampus,
magnetic resonance imaging was unexpectedly not active, but the
(fMRI) to identify the active frontal areas that handle
parts of their brain. decision-making were active instead.

Trapped in an
endless time loop
The term
‘déjà vu’ was
coined in 1876 by
French philosopher
Émile Boirac
The man who has déjà vu about déjà vu

D
éjà vu can be a or reading newspapers, the sense that he
disconcerting experience, has “encountered it all before” proving to
often one that causes be completely inescapable. Scientists who
confusion or frustration. studied this case of ‘chronic déjà vu’ found
However, most of us that the subject had a history of depression
© Getty; SPL; Thinkstock, Adobe Stock AI

are lucky enough to and anxiety, and he had once taken LSD, but
only get déjà vu occasionally, unlike one otherwise, he was healthy. His brain scans
unfortunate man who is constantly stuck returned normal results, implying the cause
inside a never-ending cycle of it. Believed was psychological.
to have been initiated by anxiety, this The roots of déjà vu still evade science, but
British man’s condition is so severe that he researchers such as Akira O’Connor believe a
avoids watching TV, listening to the radio ‘brain twitch’ may be responsible.

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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Hypnosis explained
Supernatural mind control, placebo effect or something in
between? Hypnosis takes us on a journey into the mind…

I
Who can be
n its simplest terms, hypnosis is a process Typically, a hypnotist will ‘induce’ the subject
by which someone becomes less aware into a highly suggestible state via techniques
of conscious thought and inhibition
and more open to suggestion. Changes
such as progressive relaxation or surprise.
However, a formal induction isn’t a prerequisite for
hypnotised?
The ability to be hypnotised falls
in neural activity can alter the subject’s hypnotism to succeed.
along a normal distribution, or
perceptions and emotions, enabling Clinical hypnosis is conducted to address both bell-shaped curve, with the
WKHPWRIRFXVWKHLUWKRXJKWVDQGȴOWHURXWGLVWUDFWLRQV psychological and physical problems. For example, it has majority of people being
One key area involved in such altered states includes been used to reduce the experience of pain in severe moderately responsive to
hypnotic suggestion and smaller
the frontal lobe, which accounts for a large portion burn victims and of women in labour and to offer relief
numbers at the extremes, either
of the brain’s mass and is responsible for a person’s from nausea to patients undergoing chemotherapy. YHU\GL˵FXOWRUYHU\HDV\WR
personality, emotions and long-term memory. Changing Hypnosis is also used to treat those with anxiety and hypnotise. Hypnotisability – much
frontal lobe function alters a person’s subjective various phobias as well as to modify behaviour in the the same as IQ – is a relatively
stable quality that will remain
experience of reality as cognitive processes shift and treatment of eating disorders and smoking cessation.
consistent throughout adulthood.
elective actions occur without conscious volition. Hypnotism is a form of dissociation that works by Scientists are always searching
Other areas of the brain that are involved with altered allowing the patient to respond to suggestions while for characteristics that will predict
states include the parietal lobe, which can distort the ignoring competing or incompatible stimuli. This is successful hypnotism. They have
ruled out any association
subject’s perception of space and time; the thalamus, achieved by means of existing mental faculties. People between hypnotisability and
which can induce the feeling in a subject that they’re who are hypnotised have the same physical and mental being ‘weak-willed’ or gullible.
‘in a world of their own’; and the reticular formation, abilities that they possess in a normal state. They cannot Nor are people with dissociative
which receives sensory information from the outside be empowered to perform acts of superhuman strength, qualities or excellent
imaginations especially open to
world and determines what is important and what’s not, nor can they be forced to recall events that they never this practice. However, it does
so as to prevent us from suffering sensory overload. retained, such as memories of their infancy. appear that people who have the
ability to become completely
The human brain is capable of engrossed in daydreams or music
entering an altered are more likely to respond to
consciousness whereby the hypnosis than those who cannot.
subject undergoes a range of
conscious experiences

The state debate

One controversy surrounding for the atypical behaviour that’s
hypnosis is the state debate. often observed during hypnosis.
While professionals on both sides Non-state theorists, on the
of the argument agree hypnosis other hand, maintain that the
exists, they disagree about the process of hypnosis moves
way it takes place. Subscribers to participants along a continuum
the state theory believe hypnotic into a zone of heightened
induction puts participants into suggestibility, perhaps due to
an altered state of their expectations or
consciousness, which is totally compliance, but that the
discrete from normal waking mechanisms employed during
reality. State theorists argue that hypnosis are the same as those
it is this shift of state that allows governing normal consciousness.

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 H Y P N O S I S
E X P L A I N E D

Types of hypnosis
We all know what hypnosis is, but did you know that there is more than one type?

Ericksonian Hypnoanalysis
Named after American psychologist
This approach seeks to uncover the
Milton H Erickson, this type of
‘trigger event’ causing the subject’s
hypnotherapy deploys indirect
current issues. Unearthing the root of the
suggestions and storytelling to change
problem enables the hypnotherapist to
behaviour. It is a method that is viewed as
lessen the negative feelings associated
pioneering in the world of hypnosis and
with the event. It can be used alongside
one that is widely adopted.
other types of therapeutics.

Suggestion
Often used to alter habits, reduce stress and
treat anxiety, this method involves a
hypnotherapist making suggestions while
their patient is in a hypnotic state, when the
subconscious is thought to be more open to
guidance and new ideas.

Cognitive
Blending a number of hypnotherapies in
order to provide a subject with a
customised plan aligned with their needs
and goals, cognitive hypnotherapy is used
to ‘update’ the subconscious and bring it
into line with the subject’s conscious state.
7KLVW\SHRIWKHUDS\LVSDUWLFXODUO\H˴HFWLYH
for curing phobias.

Hypno-
psychotherapy
Commonly used with subjects who have
deeper problems to tackle, hypno-
psychotherapy is practised by a professional
trained in both hypnosis and psychotherapy. Past life regression
An integrative method, it is used in conjunction Adherents to this approach believe that
with another type of psychotherapy, such as everyone has past lives, and that by
mindfulness or humanist. exploring them, issues in the subject’s
present life can be dealt with. It is thought
to be helpful for people who feel they are
stuck in life or find that certain problems
continue to reoccur.

Time line therapy Solution

This type of therapy is predicated on the Unlike the other types of hypnosis,
belief that our memories are stored in a solution-focused hypnotherapy sees the
sequential order (a timeline). Therapists who subject leading the sessions, with the
use this method rely on a variety of therapist acting as a guide. This method
techniques to enable subjects to release works to unleash the inner reserves of
detrimental beliefs and feelings that are strength within people in order to enable
© Getty, Alamy

currently holding them back, helping to them to change their here and now and
treat depression and anxiety. shape their future.

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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Eyewitness accounts
and reconstructed memories
Police learned long ago not to put total faith in an eyewitness’s memory.
Discover how the cognitive interview technique can help
build a more accurate picture of a crime

I
n 1996, Shareef Cousin was
convicted of murdering a man
during a botched street mugging
in New Orleans and sentenced to
death. He was exonerated in 1999.
Kirk Bloodsworth was convicted
of the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl
in Baltimore County, Maryland, in 1985 and
sentenced to death. He was exonerated in 1993.
Anthony Porter was convicted of a double
murder in a Chicago park in 1983. He was
only two days from his execution date when
a videotaped confession of the real killer led to
his exoneration in 1999.
What’s the link between these three cases?
What made these convictions for such grave
offences so shaky? Well, the key witnesses
for the prosecution, all of whom positively
LGHQWLȴHGWKHGHIHQGDQWVPDGHH\HZLWQHVV
testimony that was subsequently proved to be
completely inaccurate. These witnesses weren’t
lying about what they saw for personal gain, A witness might point out the person who looks most like their memory of the perpetrator in a police lineup,
DQGQRWKLQJKDGGLUHFWO\LQȵXHQFHGWKHLU even if the actual perpetrator isn’t among them
testimony. When recalling the crime they’d

“Some techniques used to obtain eyewitness

witnessed, their brains had fabricated parts of
WKHPHPRU\WKDWZHUHLQFRPSOHWHRUGLGQȇWȴW
a preconceived set of values. A case of joining testimony can influence it”
the dots and then viewing the picture through
a lens of personal and cultural bias. To a for all your memories in an incredibly subtle per se; we recall the idea that underpins it in
lesser or greater degree, your brain does this and complex process. a way that has more meaning for us. So our
It can help to understand how your brain values, prejudice and past experiences can
stores information if you imagine your memory LQȵXHQFHWKRVHVFKHPDV%ULWLVKSV\FKRORJLVW
works like a computer drive, directly recording Sir Frederic Bartlett famously demonstrated
video, audio and other sensory information how subjective our memories can be in his 1932
that make up an experience in any given experiment, ‘War of Ghosts’ (see the box on the
moment. Several brain regions are involved opposite page for more).
in encoding different types of experience and To make things more complicated, some of the
transferring them to other parts of the brain. techniques used to obtain eyewitness testimony
,WHQDEOHVHɚFLHQWPHPRU\UHWULHYDOEXWDOVR FDQDFWXDOO\HQGXSLQȵXHQFLQJLW)RUH[DPSOH
PHDQVWKHVHPHPRULHVDUHVXEMHFWWRLQȵXHQFH the classic police lineup can be conducted in
Memories are stored in schemas, information several ways, including a ‘simultaneous lineup’
9LFWLPVRIYLROHQWFULPHPD\KDYHGL˥FXOW\ units that compile patterns of thought and in which the accused isn’t included. Witnesses
remembering the perpetrator’s face if they used behaviour concerning people or situations. ZLOORIWHQSRLQWWKHȴQJHUDWWKHSHUVRQZKR
a weapon yet have a detailed recollection of
the item itself
We don’t precisely remember that memory looks most like their memory of the perpetrator

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 E Y E W I T N E S S A C C O U N T S A N D
R E C O N S T R U C T E D M E M O R I E S

The cognitive interview technique

Detectives can deploy this psychological interview technique if they think it will
improve the accuracy of their eyewitness’ account
Putting the crime in context Changing perspective Turning back time Devil in the detail
The detective asks the witness to recall the events The witness is asked to imagine the We tend to remember the most Finally, the witness dwells on the incidental,
surrounding the crime and the crime itself using scene from someone else’s recent events more clearly, so seemingly inconsequential details of the
all five senses. If the witness cannot clearly recall perspective: another witness standing the detective asks the witness to crime, such as the type of shoes the criminal
what they saw, for example, then a clear memory across the road, the victim, or even try to recount the events of the was wearing, or the number plate of the car
of what they heard might help build the picture. the perpetrators of the crime. crime in reverse order. that was approaching the scene, or the colour
WKHWUD˵FOLJKWVZHUHDWDSUHFLVHPRPHQW

The war of ghosts

In 1932, psychologist Sir Frederic Bartlett
conducted an experiment that worked like
the telephone game (also called Chinese
whispers). He asked each of his subjects to
read an obscure piece of Native American
folklore they wouldn’t have known called the
‘War of Ghosts’. He then asked them to recall
The cognitive interview technique was used to verify information and obtain a confession from Karen Matthews
the story at increasing intervals.
in the 2008 case of kidnapping victim Shannon Matthews (her daughter) Naturally, the subjects began to forget
details from the story as the time between
the telling and the remembering increased.
rather than saying that the person they the crime in several ways, including As details became hazy, they were adapted
remember isn’t in the lineup. They might not remembering the sequence of events in a or completely removed in the retelling.
recall the face of the perpetrator clearly because different order and remembering them from the Bartlett called this ‘distortion’ and identified
three aspects of it. ‘Assimilation’ made the
a weapon was present: a gun or knife used in a perspective of the criminal or another witness.
story more familiar to the subject – Native
threatening manner can focus the attention of It’s thought that, by changing the order of the American details became more British.
© Getty; Illustration by Peter Kavanagh

the eyewitness on the item itself to the exclusion narrative and perspective, the witness’s reliance ‘Levelling’ made the story shorter as elements
of remembering everything else. on prior knowledge to retrieve the memory is were forgotten or deemed unimportant and
removed. ‘Sharpening’ changed the order of
The cognitive interview technique was reduced. This technique can also help jog their the story and added certain details. Bartlett
devised in 1992 to help form a more accurate memory of other details they might not have gained wide recognition for his work, as the
eyewitness account of a crime. The interviewer otherwise remembered via a conventional experiment showed how a person’s memory
asks the witness to recall the events surrounding interview method. can be heavily influenced by their own
knowledge and experiences.

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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

The Mandela effect False memories are often shared globally, raising
questions about collective human memory

M
emory is a tricky thing.
With so much happening
all around us, there’s
no way to take in and
remember everything
we experience, and
sometimes, we don’t recall details of what we
do remember correctly. We can also have a
completely different interpretation of events
than someone else who experienced the
same thing. This can happen on a global scale
and often with extreme differentiations. To
the people holding these false memories,
their individual impressions feel so real that
they cannot accept that their memory is
wrong, even when there is concrete evidence
that proves otherwise, often expressing
shock, confusion and sometimes even anger.
Many of the most widespread false
memories are rooted in pop culture or are
of events that are well-known around the
ZRUOG7KRXJKVRPHPD\VHHPLQVLJQLȴFDQW
or are simply a minor detail – or, naysayers
argue, can be put down to basic human
error – it is still interesting to see how
interpretations vary, especially when some
inaccuracies are so strange or easy to
disprove but are shared by thousands.
Some wild theories suggest that parallel
universes could be at play, with a multiverse

Nelson
packed with unlimited possibilities creating
chances for every version of events.

Mandela’s
However, more acceptable underlying
contributors to this false memory
phenomenon could be misinformation,

‘death’
the brain linking events to associated
information that alters details of the
memory or the human quality of being
inclined to accept the suggestions of other The most famous false memory became a
people. The spread of misinformation – moniker for the phenomenon when it was
especially in the era of the internet – may revealed that thousands of individuals
could remember Nelson Mandela passing
also be an underlying cause.
away in the 1980s during his time in prison.
In fact, he didn’t die until 2013.

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The
“Many
remember the
Berenstain show being
called ‘Looney
Bears
A popular children’s literature franchise,
Toons’, not the
correct Looney
many who grew up reading the series
remember the name spelt as Berenstein.
One attributing factor to this false memory
Tunes”
PD\EHXQR˵FLDONQRFNR˴PHUFKDQGLVH
with the name spelt incorrectly.

Shazam
Many people can remember a
1990s movie that starred
VWDQGXSFRPHGLDQ6LQEDGDV
a genie, but no such film exists.
People could be mistaking it
for the 1996 film Kazaam
VWDUULQJ1%$$OO6WDU6KDT

The Deese-Roediger-
McDermott
Bologna station clock paradigm
A procedure to investigate false memory in
humans, subjects are presented with a list of
The clock at Bologna words relating to a keyword that is not present
Centrale Station was in the list – ‘peach’, ‘apple’ and ‘banana’
damaged in the Bologna might be present, but not the word ‘fruit’,
bombing in 1980. A 2010 which links them. There are also a few words
study showed that 92 per in the list unrelated to this keyword as a
cent of its respondents distraction. Participants are then asked to
believed that the clock recall as many words as they can remember.
had been stuck at the If one of these keywords is recalled by the
same time since, although, subject, this indicates a mistake in their
in reality, it was fixed soon memory processors. This test shows us that in
after the attack. some people, unconscious associations
could be behind the altering of memories,
causing them to experience a false memory.

Out
Further studies using the paradigm have
VKRZQWKDWIDOVHPHPRU\UHWULHYDOUHYHDOV
GL˴HUHQWQHXUDODFWLYLW\LQWKHEUDLQWRWKH

of tune
recovery of a genuine memory.

Possibly because of the ‘oo’

in ‘Looney’ or because of
its connotation with the
word ‘cartoon’, many who
enjoyed the adventures of
%XJV'D˴\6\OYHVWHUDQG
Tweety remember the show
being called ‘Looney
Toons’, not the correct
© Getty, Alamy

Looney Tunes. The name

was inspired by Disney’s Neurons carry electrical impulses in our brains
Silly Symphonies.

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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Sex and
the City
A lot of people are absolutely
certain that they remember the
show – which ran between 1998
and 2004 – being called ‘Sex in the
City’, but it’s not. Some believers
have even found merchandise
suggesting ‘in’ is correct, but these
FRXOGEHXQR˵FLDOJRRGVRU
misprints. The show, which was
created by Darren Star and
inspired two films, has always been
called Sex and the City.

We are the champions…

…of the world! If you belt that last part out at the end of Queen’s famous hit, you’ll be surprised
to find out that Freddie Mercury doesn’t sing it along with you like in the previous verses.

Monopoly
monocle
Though it would pair nicely with his top hat and
cane, the Monopoly man never wore a monocle.
However, many people are surprised when they
pull out the game and see that it isn’t there,
swearing they remember him having one.

Schema-driven errors
It could just be the fact that we’re remembering what is typically
expected that accounts for these memory errors. Schemata are
patterns in thought that organise information and the relationships
EHWZHHQGL˴HUHQWWKLQJV7KH\SURYLGHDIUDPHZRUNIRUIXWXUH
understanding and, therefore, influence the absorption of new
material into our brains. People are more likely to notice things
that fit into their established schema, while details that don’t are
reinterpreted or distorted to fit the pattern. As an example, when
participants in a study were asked to recall the contents of a
SV\FKRORJLVW·VR˵FHWKH\WHQGHGWRUHPHPEHUFRQVLVWHQWDQG
commonplace items such as bookshelves and desks and omit
Schemata help any inconsistencies they felt didn’t typically belong. People’s
organise the individual schemata have the tendency to remain unchanged
relationships of even when contradictory information is presented. While
pieces of information, schemata are useful in helping us process and understand new
fitting them together information, they also play a part in distorting memories.
like a puzzle

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Curious
Have a break
6RPHUHPHPEHUWKHVHFKRFRODWHFRYHUHGZDIHU George
biscuits having a hyphen in the name, recalling The titular character of the
HQMR\LQJDWDVW\¶.LW.DW·7KH\·UHRIWHQVXUSULVHGRU Curious George books and TV
confused when they find out that it isn’t spelt with one. series has been around since
1939. People across generations
remember him having a tail –
after all, a monkey usually
does – but George gets along
fine without one.

Febreze
You might even use this
cleaning product every day at
home and still think it’s always
been spelt ‘Febreeze’, looking at
the bottle in disbelief. Don’t
worry, you’re definitely not the
only one to remember it being
spelt that way.

“People
remember
George having
a tail – a
monkey usually
does – but he
gets along fine
without one”

“Luke, I
am your
father”
When Luke Skywalker confronts
nemesis Darth Vader in Cloud
City, Vader reveals to Luke one
of the biggest surprises in film
history. Yet despite its
memorability, many misphrase
© Getty, Alamy

WKHTXRWH9DGHUDFWXDOO\VD\V
“No. I am your father.”

83
UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Sketchy memory
The name of the footwear company is often erroneously
thought to be spelt Sketchers, when it is in fact Skechers. This
may be because it looks more natural to us in English or
because of mispronunciation.

State of confusion
There are 50 states that make up the United States of America, but large
groups of people are adamant that there are 51 or 52. They could be
thinking of Puerto Rico, which is a territory, or DC, which is a district.

Changing chartreuse
What type of colour is
chartreuse? If your
mind went straight to
a shade of pink, you
may be one of those
experiencing a false
memory. It’s actually
D\HOORZJUHHQ
named for its
similarity in colour to
D)UHQFKOLTXHXU

Mother
‹.LQJNRQJSKRWR ZZZFHOHEULW\SKRWRVFRP
/DXUHO0DU\ODQG

Teresa
Roman Catholic nun
Mother Teresa was
canonised as a saint by
Pope Francis on
4 September 2016. Many

Hello, Clarice
were surprised at the news
because they recall this
happening as far back as
the 1990s under Pope John
In the 1991 psychological horror film The Silence of the Paul II. This may be the
Lambs, FBI trainee Clarice Starling visits Hannibal Lecter result of people mixing up
for advice on a case. Many remember him eerily the many recognitions
greeting her, but in reality it was a simple, “Good Mother Teresa did receive
PRUQLQJµ1RWTXLWHDVFKLOOLQJ while she was alive.

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 T H E M A N D E L A
E F F E C T

Lost Sri Lanka

If you were asked to point out Sri Lanka on a map, you’d be correct in remembering
LW·VDQLVODQGQHDU,QGLDEXWLQZKLFKGLUHFWLRQGRHVLWOLHR˴WKHFRDVW",W·VWRWKH
southeast, but it’s a common mistake that people look straight to the south.

No
cornucopia
$ZHOONQRZQPDQXIDFWXUHURISULQWDEOH
7VKLUWVDQGRWKHULWHPVRIFORWKLQJ)UXLWRIWKH
Loom’s logo features bunches of grapes and
a bright, red apple. However, many are

© Getty Images
confident that there used to be a cornucopia
cupping the fruit.

The parallel
universe theory
One explanation for this phenomenon that’s
a little more out of this world is born from

Henry’s
TXDQWXPPHFKDQLFVDQGWKHRULVHVWKDW
people on the false side of memory may
have somehow crossed from a parallel

turkey leg
universe – where their version holds true – into
ours. In multiverse theory, it’s hypothesised
that there are an infinite number of parallel
universes alongside our own, each with its
own laws of physics and individual timelines.
King Henry VIII ruled England from 1509 until
Although it’s said to be impossible for these
his death in 1547, living a decadent life of
separate universes to interact – also meaning
debauchery. Many mistakenly remember a
that multiverse theory is impossible to prove
version of his portrait where the portly king
RUGLVSURYH²IOXFWXDWLRQVLQVSDFHWLPHRUD
holds a turkey leg, but no such portrait has
collision between multiverse ‘bubbles’ could
been found to exist.
cause people from other realities to have
switched places with a doppelganger in our
own, bringing with them their memories of a
similar but incorrect version of events. It
sounds like science fiction, but many
KLJKSURILOHDVWURSK\VLFLVWV²LQFOXGLQJWKH

Tiananmen
late Stephen Hawking – acknowledge the
multiverse theory.

Square
tank man
In an iconic image taken the day after the
Chinese military suppressed the 1989
7LDQDQPHQ6TXDUHSURWHVWVE\IRUFHDQ
unknown protestor blocks the path of four
© Getty, Alamy

tanks. The final fate of the man is unknown,

Could the existence of countless alternative
but he wasn’t run down by the tanks as some
universes explain this bizarre phenomenon?
believe happened.

85
UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

The science of
photographic memory
Building photo albums in your head sounds too
impressive to be true, but is it?

T R I C K S O F
T H E M I N D

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 T H E S C I E N C E O F
P H O T O G R A P H I C M E M O R Y

W
e’ve all had that typical for those with eidetic memory to forget
moment when we VRPHHOHPHQWVRIWKHPHPRU\EXWWKH\KDYH Charles and Elizabeth
look at a photograph, enough pieces of the picture saved in their
Take a look at the most convincing
and our memories of mind to gather a pretty accurate interpretation photographic memory to date
that particular time RIWKHZKROHVFHQH One experiment sits above the rest in
FRPHȵRRGLQJEDFN Proof that people don’t capture visual exploring photographic memory potential. In
But how much detail can you say you truly memories as a photograph in their heads comes 1970, scientist Charles Stromeyer studied the
memory skills of his student Elizabeth. In the
UHPHPEHU":KDWLI\RXFRXOGUHPHPEHUHYHU\ from an experiment performed regularly
experiment, he covered her right eye and
tiny detail, from the paintings on the walls to ZLWKHLGHWLFPHPRU\:KHQUHPHPEHULQJD showed her left a series of 10,000 dots. Then,
WKHQXPEHURIWLOHVRQWKHȵRRUȂ\HDUVODWHU paragraph of text, someone who has snapped the following day, he did the same with a
3KRWRJUDSKLFPHPRU\GHVFULEHVWKHDELOLW\WR DSKRWRZRXOGEHDEOHWRUHDGWKHZRUGV GL˴HUHQWVHULHVRIGRWVRQKHUULJKWH\H
Amazingly, Elizabeth could recall the
recall memories visually, almost as if referring EDFNZDUGVLIDVNHGWRGRVR+RZHYHUVWXGLHV
position of the dots and recreate a
WRDSKRWRJUDSKLQVLGHWKHKHDG:KLOHWKLVLV ȴQGWKDWLQWKLVVFHQDULRSHRSOHZKRFODLPWR three-dimensional structure using the correct
WKHFRPPRQEHOLHIRIZKDWLWPHDQVWRKDYHD have a photographic memory can’t actually do series of 20,000 dots. To successfully achieve
photographic memory, evidence suggests this is WKLV,QVWHDGWKH\KDYHWRUHFDOOHDFKSDUWRIWKH this, she had to refer back to the two images
she had seen in her head and recall the dot
QRWTXLWHWKHFDVH VHQWHQFHDVDVHSDUDWHPHPRU\
positions to perfection. While this fits the

“The brain has the

0DQ\VFLHQWLVWVEHOLHYHWKDWZKDWPDQ\ definition of a photographic memory, it
misinterpret as a photographic memory is could only be assumed what was happening

ability to remember
DFWXDOO\HLGHWLFPHPRU\7KLVLVWKHDELOLW\ in her brain for her to remember this. As no
evidence has been as compelling since, is

what has been seen, this the closest we will come to finding a
RIVRPHRQHWRUHPHPEHUDQLPDJHLQWKHLU
PLQGIRUDZKLOHHYHQRQFHWKHVLJKWKDVEHHQ photographic mind?
UHPRYHGIURPWKHLUH\HV:KLOHVRPHSHRSOH
but some can refer
back to this imagery
VHHWKLVLPDJHEHWWHUWKDQRWKHUVDQGIRUD
ORQJHUSHULRGWKHLPDJHLVQRWWKRXJKWWREH
presented as a photograph in the head, which is
VRPHWKLQJWKDWFDQEHVFDQQHGRYHUWRIRFXVRQ
for longer than others”
GLIIHUHQWDUHDV,QVWHDGWKHLPDJHLVSUHVHQWHG ,WLVLPSRUWDQWWRQRWHWKDWZHDOOKDYHHLGHWLF
from one point of view and is less clear than a PHPRU\WRDFHUWDLQGHJUHH7KHEUDLQFDQ
SKRWRJUDSKZRXOGEH UHPHPEHUZKDWKDVEHHQVHHQEXWVRPHSHRSOH
People with eidetic skills are more likely FDQUHIHUEDFNWRWKLVLPDJHU\IRUORQJHUWKDQ
WRUHPHPEHUHOHPHQWVRIDPHPRU\OLNHD RWKHUV7RWHVW\RXUHLGHWLFPHPRU\DOO\RX
MLJVDZ7KH\FDQKROGWKHVHSX]]OHSLHFHVLQ have to do is look at the scene in front of you,
WKHLUKHDGIRUSURORQJHGSHULRGV7KHQXPEHU shut your eyes and then see how long you can
of memories they acquire is not thought to UHPHPEHUWKHYLHZLQVLJQLȴFDQWGHWDLO)RU
EHKLJKHUWKDQWKDWRIWKHDYHUDJHSHUVRQ most people, the vision starts to fade after a Elizabeth was a student at Harvard University

EXWWKHSHUFHQWDJHRIPHPRULHVPRYHGLQWR IHZVHFRQGV
ORQJWHUPPHPRU\LV+RZHYHUDVFDQKDSSHQ :KHQWKHDYHUDJHSHUVRQREVHUYHV WKDWWKH\GRQȇWQHHGWRUHPHPEHUWRFLUFOH
ZLWKMLJVDZVSLHFHVFDQJRPLVVLQJ,WLV VRPHWKLQJVXFKDVDPHVV\EHGURRPWKH\ZLOO DURXQGLQWKHLUKHDGV
leave their house with the vision of this untidy 7KHUHDUHIHZHUWKDQSHRSOHNQRZQ
URRPWKDWWKH\QHHGWRVRUW0RYLQJWKURXJKWKH worldwide who have a condition called highly
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EXWZKHQWKHWKRXJKWRIWKHLUEHGURRPFRPHV VXFKDUHȴQHGPHPRU\WKDWLWFDQEHLQFRUUHFWO\
EDFNWKH\DUHOLNHO\WRVWLOOUHPHPEHUWKDWWKH\ PLVWDNHQIRUDSKRWRJUDSKLFPHPRU\3HRSOH
QHHGWRWLG\LW7KHGLIIHUHQFHLVWKDWWKLVKDV ZLWKWKLVNLQGRIPHPRU\FDQUHPHPEHUHYHQWV
EHFRPHLQIRUPDWLRQLQWKHLUKHDGDWWKLVSRLQW in great detail from decades ago, such as what
they are not viewing a photographic image day of the week something happened, what
ZKHQWKH\KDYHWKLVPHPRU\ they were wearing on any day and what meals
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,ILWH[LVWVSKRWRJUDSKLFPHPRU\FRQWLQXHV FDSDEOHRIKROGLQJPHPRULHVLQWKHIRUPRI
WRVWXQWKRVHZKRFDQQRWFRPSUHKHQGLW,WLV SKRWRJUDSKVUHPDLQVXQNQRZQ8QIRUWXQDWHO\
stereotypically viewed as a superpower, and there is not yet a way to prove exactly what is
VRPHORRNRQLQDZHDQGMHDORXV\+RZHYHUDQ EHLQJVHHQLQWKHPLQGVRIRWKHUV7KRVHZKR
LQWHQVHO\SRZHUIXOPHPRU\FDQVRPHWLPHVEH FODLPWREHDEOHWRXVHSKRWRJUDSKLFPHPRU\
© Getty, Alamy

PRUHFKDOOHQJLQJWKDQLWVRXQGV,QVRPHFDVHV are the only ones who can know what is going
Between two and 15 per cent of children
people storing unnecessary memories have RQLQWKHLUKHDGEXWWKHUHLVPXFKVSHFXODWLRQ
can memorise vivid images for a few
minutes or more after closing their eyes WKHLUKHDGVȴOOHGZLWKPHQWDOFOXWWHUHYHQWV LQWKHVFLHQWLȴFZRUOG

87
88
89
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

False
memories
Does your brain record memories like a
videotape, or is our recollection more of an
artist impression of past events?

W
e are particularly %\LWVYHU\GHȴQLWLRQDIDOVHPHPRU\LV
precious about our a fabricated or distorted recollection of an
memories. As records event, often surrounding fact. For example,
of life events in a imagine walking down the street and
scrapbook locked away catching a glimpse of a man strolling past,
in our minds, our and you remember him wearing a backpack.
memories are the biological biographies If you were then asked what colour the
of our history and a reference guide backpack was, you might recount seeing
on how to function in daily life. From red. But then what if self-doubt occurs and,
remembering how to cook your family’s in actuality, you think it was his hoodie that
pasta recipe, your tenth birthday party was red? Suggesting an alternative in this
or monumental moments such as your way may cause the development of false
wedding day, memories are often thought memory. The truth is that for the majority
of as a video recording of time. But what of us, it’s impossible to perfectly recall the
if your recollection of life events isn’t as events of an entire day, or even the past
accurate as you originally thought? Could hour, for that matter.
ȆIDOVHPHPRULHVȇEHXQZLWWLQJO\LQȴOWUDWLQJ The truth behind false memories
your brain, creating details of an event has been readily explored in recent
that never happened? decades, but no more so than by

American psychologist
Professor Elizabeth Loftus
has dedicated her career
to understanding how
false memories form

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M E M O R Y

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 F A L S E
M E M O R I E S

“Could ‘false memories’

be creating details of
an event that never
© Shutterstock, Getty

actually happened?”

91
UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

The lost in the

mall technique
Where imagination can
generate a false memory
You may recall a memory whereby, as a
child, you found yourself in a shopping
centre or mall alone, having lost a parent
among the hustle and bustle of busy
shoppers. But what if that memory was a
complete fabrication? Loftus asked test
Furthering her already extensive research subjects to recall the
on the topic of false memories, professor details of a car crash and
Elizabeth Loftus and her student Jacqueline found that answers
Pickrell devised an experiment to assess changed depending on
whether or not their study participants could the way the questions
recall a memory of such an event that never were asked
occurred. Having consulted with their
participants’ families, the pair presented test
subjects with four short narratives describing
events from their childhood, or so it seemed.
Unbeknownst to the subjects, one of the
stories was false and described an event
psychologist professor Elizabeth Loftus. Her “Our memories can
be contaminated
work in the mid-to-late 1970s revealed how our
whereby the subject was lost in a mall as a
child, around five or six years old. It told of memories can be contaminated and altered in
them being left for an extended period of
time before being reunited with their parents
what is known as the ‘misinformation effect’. and altered in what
is now known as the
In a series of experiments, Loftus showed
with the help of an elderly person.
a group of participants a video of two cars
Supported by details unique to each
subject’s family, the tale seemed perfectly
plausible, which was reflected in the results.
colliding, then, once they were split into several ³PLVLQIRUPDWLRQHˤHFW´”
groups, quizzed the viewers on the events
Around 25 per cent of the participants they had just witnessed. One group was asked What Loftus had uncovered was the effect
claimed to be able to remember the event,
a straightforward question, “How fast were the verb played in leading the participants
even going as far as to provide extra
information about the event not detailed to the cars going when they hit each other?” to make a false recall of the event. But why
them in the experiment. Loftus and Pickrell Meanwhile, the other groups were asked the is understanding false memories in this way
concluded that the act of imagining the same question but the word ‘hit’ was altered to important? The answer lies in how we use our
event created a false memory.
words such as ‘smashed’, ‘collided’ or ‘bumped’. memories. Much more than mental snapshots of
Loftus discovered that by adapting how the our lives, our memories have been legalised and
question was asked, the study subjects recalled used as evidence to convict so-called criminals
the event differently. Those asked the question since the mid-1970s. However, as DNA evidence
using the word ‘smashed’ estimated speeds became prevalent during the 1990s, there was a
of around 40 miles per hour, whereas those stark realisation that eyewitness testimony may
asked using the word ‘contacted’ estimated not be as reliable as was once believed.
around 31 miles per hour. Similarly, when At a TED talk in 2013, Loftus recalled a
asked, “Did you see any broken glass?” the study of 300 cases of individuals where DNA
majority of participants correctly answered no. evidence had proven they had been wrongfully
Around a quarter of those tested believed that However, those asked the ‘smashed’ version of convicted, some of whom had served as long
they remembered being lost in a mall despite it the question were more likely to incorrectly say as 30 years. In three-quarters of these cases,
never actually happening there was broken glass in the video. the conviction was a consequence of “faulty

F R A C T U R E D
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92
 F A L S E
M E M O R I E S

eyewitness memory”. Several factors can

affect eyewitness recall, such as interference,
Timid as a mouse
How two scientists successfully implanted a false memory
HPRWLRQDQGFRQȵLFWLQJLQIRUPDWLRQ)RU
example, one common aspect of a crime
False memories may be unavoidably obtained memory formation, the pair injected the
prone to false memory construction is the
DVDVLGHH˴HFWRIWKHLQIOXHQFHVDQG mouse brain with a light-sensitive light switch
presence of a weapon. This was demonstrated inferences of daily life. However, two MIT protein called channelrhodopsin, which binds
by researchers Johnson and Scott in 1976 in scientists, Steve Ramirez and Xu Liu, achieved to the brain cells involved in memory. After
an experiment that gave rise to what is now a work of science fiction back in 2012 when placing the mouse into a second unfamiliar
they intentionally implanted a false memory box, a laser was fired at the brain and the
known as the ‘weapon focus’ effect. into the brain of a mouse. The experiment light-sensitive channelrhodopsin activated the
Their experiment centred on the effect of revolved around provoking a fear memory brain cells and replayed the fear memory to
anxiety on the accuracy of testimonies made recall for the mouse at the switch of a laser. the mouse. This resulted in the mouse’s natural
by eyewitnesses. Participants were asked to Initially placing the mouse in a box, the base fear response of ‘freezing’, thus proving the
of the box delivered a mild foot shock, scientists had successfully implanted a fear
sit in a waiting room at a laboratory. A nearby triggering a fear memory. At the point of memory into the mouse.
receptionist then excused herself, leaving the
test subjects alone. Split into two groups, the
ȴUVWRYHUKHDUGWKHFKDWWHURIWKHHPSOR\HHV
discussing equipment failure as an individual
walked past the subjects holding a pen in their
hands covered in grease.
The second group, placed in the same
waiting room scenario, were exposed to
a heated exchange, breaking glass and an
individual moving past the participants holding
a bloody knife. The two groups were then
asked to identify each person who had left
the laboratory after being shown images of 50
potential candidates.
6XUSULVLQJO\WKHPHPEHUVRIWKHȴUVWJURXS
FRUUHFWO\LGHQWLȴHGWKHSHUVRQZDONLQJZLWK
the greasy pen 49 per cent of the time, whereas
those exposed to the knife-wielding individual
RQO\FRUUHFWO\LGHQWLȴHGWKHPSHUFHQWRI
the time. It’s believed that this is due to the
higher levels of anxiety felt by those exposed
to the knife, with their attention drawn to the
knife rather than the person. This suggested
a reduction in the accuracy of eyewitness
testimonies of people who experienced a
situation involving a weapon.
Ramirez and Liu developed a way to switch fear
The presence of weapons, leading verbs PHPRULHVLQWKHKLSSRFDPSXVRQDQGRˤLQPLFH
or suggestive language aren’t the only ways
in which false memory can lodge itself
in our brains. Several theories explain One such theory is the ‘fuzzy-trace theory’, does relate to the other words. This is where
what can lead to the original memory’s outlined by researchers Charles Brainerd and %UDLQHUGDQG5H\QDȇVIX]]\WUDFHWKHRU\DLPV
distortion or alteration. 9DOHULH)5H\QDWRH[SODLQDPHPRU\FUHDWLQJ to offer some answers and proposes that there
SKHQRPHQRQFDOOHGWKH'HHVH5RHGLJHU DUHWZRW\SHVRIPHPRU\7KHȴUVWYHUEDWLPLV
0F'HUPRWW '50 SDUDGLJP7KH'50 where we recall the details of a memory vividly
paradigm is a false memory task whereby and more accurately. The second is gist-like
subjects are given a list of related words that memories, which are imprecise and ‘fuzzy’
they are then required to remember – for representations of memory, hence the name
example, bed, rest, awake, tired, dream, fuzzy-trace theory.
snooze, nap and slumber. The subjects are The research around false memories is
then asked to recall the list of words after a still in its relative infancy in terms of fully
certain period – different studies have explored understanding how our memories are
a gap anywhere from a few minutes to a few encoded and decoded. Currently, scientists are
months. What this listicle test found was that trying to evaluate how creating false memories
subjects typically recalled the word ‘sleep’, might play a role in treating neurological
Eyewitness accounts of a crime might be examples
© Getty

of false memories due to several influencing factors even though it was not on the list, although it degenerative conditions.

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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

The HPA axis (highlighted) is

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disorder, a symptom of which is memory loss

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P
ost-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD) refers to the set
of negative psychological
symptoms that follow exposure
to actual or threatened death,
DVGHȴQHGE\WKHDiagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM-V), which is used to diagnose mental
conditions. The kind of events that go on to
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individual, including wars, serious accidents
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and stress. Another symptom listed in the DSM-V
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of the traumatic event”. This memory lapse
is known as ‘dissociative amnesia’ and is not
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Amnesia is a partial or total loss of memory;
dissociative amnesia is where the traumatised
LQGLYLGXDOEORFNVRXWLQIRUPDWLRQDERXWWKH
traumatic event – dissociating themselves from
it – leaving gaps in their memory of the period
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trauma. This theory also explains why people
ZLWK376'H[SHULHQFHYLYLGȵDVKEDFNVRIWKH reliving of the traumatic experience. Therefore,
event, which involve a sudden, involuntary WKHVHȵDVKEDFNVDUHWKHVXSSUHVVHGPHPRULHV 5HFRJQLVH376'
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These symptoms are paraphrased from the
into various categories depending on what
DSM-V and must have been occurring for at
LVEHLQJUHPHPEHUHG'HFODUDWLYHPHPRU\ least a month in individuals aged six years
refers to the memory of facts and events and is or above for a diagnosis of PTSD to be given.
SDUWLDOO\DIIHFWHGE\376',QSDWLHQWVZLWK376' • Intrusive distressing memories of
WKLVGHFODUDWLYHPHPRU\ORVVFDQH[WHQGEH\RQG the trauma
the dissociative amnesia of the traumatic event • Nightmares related to the traumatic
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incident and disturbed sleep
• Avoidance of stimuli associated with
unemotional facts and events. Declarative the event
PHPRU\FDQEHDVVHVVHGZLWKYLVXDODQG • Dissociative amnesia
YHUEDOPHPRU\WHVWVWKHGLIIHUHQFHEHLQJWKH • Easily startled – also known
format (for example, pictures or words) in which as hypervigilance
• Uncontrollable negative emotions
the items are presented to the participants.
– e.g. anger / guilt / sadness / stress
Through people with PTSD taking these memory • Apathy and disinterestedness
tests, researchers have found that PTSD is linked in activities
ZLWKDVXEWOHLPSDLUPHQWLQYHUEDOGHFODUDWLYH • Self-destructive behaviour
memory, with visual declarative memory • Anxiety
• Physiological symptoms – e.g.
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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

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Almost half of people diagnosed with PTSD
also have a diagnosis of depression. The two
mental disorders are so closely linked that it
has been suggested that PTSD with
depression is its own subtype of PTSD. This is
perhaps unsurprising because they share
symptoms, such as sleep disruption, trouble
feeling pleasure and, crucially, memory
GL˵FXOWLHV7KHVHPHPRU\GL˵FXOWLHVDUHYHU\
similar to those seen in PTSD – depressed
patients perform poorly in verbal memory
tasks, but – unlike people with PTSD – in visual
memory tests as well. They also share certain
brain abnormalities, such as overactive HPA
axes, resulting in more cortisol being
released and smaller hippocampi.
Furthermore, both depression and PTSD have
been proposed as risk factors in increasing a
person’s likelihood of developing dementia,
a collection of diseases of progressive
memory loss.
There is a large body of research linking
depression with dementia, but the link with
PTSD has only recently emerged from a
couple of pioneering studies with veterans.
Scientists investigating this link have
suggested hormonal imbalance, HPA
dysfunction and loss of hippocampal
volume could be to blame, but more

“3HRSOHZLWKDSRRUHUPHPRU\
investigative research needs to be done
before a causal relationship between PTSD
and dementia can be identified.
PD\EHPRUHVXVFHSWLEOHWR376'”
and retaining memories, meaning the main LQWKHVWUHVVUHVSRQVHVRDEQRUPDOLWLHVKHUH The DSM-V diagnosis is only valid for
SUREOHPLVIRUPLQJQHZPHPRULHV7KHVHYHULW\ indicate a disrupted stress response. SHRSOHDJHGVL[DQGDERYH(YHQWKHQ
RIWKHVHPHPRU\GLɚFXOWLHVLVGLUHFWO\UHODWHG $KRUPRQHFDOOHGFRUWLVROLVUHOHDVHGE\ WKHEUDLQVRIFKLOGUHQRYHUWKHDJHRIVL[
to how long a person has had PTSD, so the the adrenal glands when people and animals diagnosed with PTSD are affected differently
memory of people with a long history of PTSD are stressed. Researchers studying the stress WRDGXOWVZLWK376'7KH\VWLOOH[KLELW
is most impaired. response of animals have found that cortisol KLSSRFDPSDODEQRUPDOLWLHVEXWLQVWHDGRI
6FDQVRI376'SDWLHQWVȇEUDLQVKDYH is toxic to the hippocampus, so prolonged reduced volume, they have the same volume
UHYHDOHGDEQRUPDOLWLHVLQDEUDLQDUHDFDOOHG periods of stress, like in PTSD, can damage the DVDJHPDWFKHGFKLOGUHQZLWKRXW376'MXVW
WKHKLSSRFDPSXV UHVSRQVLEOHIRUDFTXLULQJ hippocampus. During stress, cortisol is also OHVVEUDLQFHOODFWLYLW\WKHUH+RZHYHUDVWKHVH
new memories) and the hypothalamic- released onto the prefrontal cortex, an area traumatised children grow up with continual
pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The HPA axis DWWKHIURQWRIWKHEUDLQWKDWFRQWULEXWHVWR stress, their hippocampi are likely to reduce
UHSUHVHQWVWKHFRPPXQLFDWLRQEHWZHHQWKH H[HFXWLYHEUDLQIXQFWLRQVOLNHZRUNLQJPHPRU\ LQYROXPHWRPLUURUWKHDEQRUPDOYROXPHVHHQ
hypothalamus, the pituitary glands and the EHKDYLRXUDQGHPRWLRQ,QWHUHVWLQJO\ERWKWKH in adults with PTSD.
DGUHQDOJODQGVZKLFKLQȵXHQFHVEHKDYLRXUV volume and activity of the prefrontal cortices Another way to look at the relationship
such as mood, temperature control and of PTSD patients are lower than those of people EHWZHHQWUDXPDDQG376'LVWKDWSUHH[LVWLQJ
the immune system through the release of without PTSD. These reductions are especially PHPRU\DQGOHDUQLQJSUREOHPVFRXOGEHULVN
KRUPRQHV7KHVHEUDLQV\VWHPVDUHLQYROYHG prominent in children. factors for developing PTSD. That is people with

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a poorer memory – and, therefore, some issues SUREOHPVZHUHSUHVHQWLQERWKWZLQVEHIRUHRQH ERWK376'DQGPHPRU\SUREOHPVDIIHFWHDFK

ZLWKKLSSRFDPSDOIXQFWLRQLQJȂPD\EHPRUH of them developed PTSD. other. Their theory accepts that having poorer
VXVFHSWLEOHWR376'LIWKH\H[SHULHQFHWUDXPD Studying twins is a useful way to determine memory and learning skills makes someone
,WȇVDNLQGRIFKLFNHQDQGHJJVFHQDULRȂZKLFK ZKHWKHUDFRQGLWLRQLVFDXVHGE\ELRORJ\RU more likely to develop PTSD and suggests
FDPHȴUVWWKHPHPRU\GHȴFLWVRUWKH376'" the environment as they have identical genes. WKLVLVEHFDXVHWKH\KDYHIHZHUSV\FKRORJLFDO
There is some evidence from studies of &RQVHTXHQWO\WKLVUHVHDUFKVXSSRUWVPHPRU\ resources to cope with trauma. However,
LGHQWLFDOWZLQVWKDWPHPRU\SUREOHPVGR LPSDLUPHQWDVEHLQJDULVNIDFWRUIRU376' they also argue that the onset of PTSD further
SUHFHGH376',QWKHWZLQVVWXGLHGRQHZDV UDWKHUWKDQ376'FDXVLQJPHPRU\GHȴFLWV impairs cognitive functions such as memory
DZDUYHWHUDQZLWKVXEVHTXHQW376'DQGWKH Neuroscientists Jennifer J Vasterling and learning. This cognitive disruption not only
other was neither a veteran nor had PTSD. Both (professor of psychiatry at Boston University LQWHUUXSWVGDLO\WDVNVEXWFDQDOVRLQWHUIHUHZLWK
twins in the pairs had smaller hippocampi and School of Medicine) and Kevin Brailey (staff psychological treatment.
SRRUHUYHUEDOPHPRU\DELOLW\FRPSDUHGWR psychologist for the Center of Returning Ultimately, the distressing nature of PTSD
the average person. Therefore, some memory Veterans) theorised a ‘downward spiral’ where PDNHVLWGLɚFXOWWRVWXG\7KHGLVVRFLDWLYH
DPQHVLDSUHVHQWVDKXUGOHLIWKHVXEMHFW
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studied. Therefore, reviews of multiple studies
are crucial to make the most of the existing
research and develop treatment strategies that
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KDYHGL˥FXOW\VOHHSLQJ 376'LQFKLOGUHQ do not rely on memory.

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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Living in the
present
Two remarkable case studies highlight how the brain
adapts and learns in the face of irreparable damage

N
euroscience research where a virus spreads from the body into the
relies on patients with EUDLQFDXVLQJLQȵDPPDWLRQDQGWKHGHVWUXFWLRQ
existing brain damage to of brain cells. This happened to patient ‘EP’
provide insight into the (Eugene Pauly) and resulted in the loss of
workings of the brain. This his medial temporal lobe.
reliance is largely due to The medial temporal lobe is a collection
ethical guidelines understandably preventing of brain structures located in the centre of
scientists from manipulating live human brains. the brain. It includes the hippocampus,

“Henry would forget

However, guidelines haven’t always been so entorhinal and perirhinal cortices,
strict, and lobotomies – removing chunks of the amygdala and subicular complex, which
front of patients’ brains to ‘treat’ mental health work together to process new information
he’d eaten his bacon
roll in the morning
conditions – were rife until as recently as the and combine it into memories. Henry
mid-20th century. A similar procedure termed was diagnosed with a form of epilepsy
a lobectomy also exists, which is the removal occurring in the temporal lobe after
and repeat the task,
resulting in him
of a lobe of a diseased organ. These used to be being hit by a bike at the age of seven.
performed on the brain but are now usually His condition was managed by a cocktail
restricted to the lungs. A misguided brain of anti-epileptic medications that allowed
eating up to four for
breakfast”
lobectomy removed the medial temporal lobe him to live a normal life at his home in
of a patient initially known as ‘HM’, who was Connecticut, USA. However, his epilepsy
later revealed to be a young man by the name gradually worsened throughout adolescence
of Henry Molaison. until, at the age of 27, his seizures were so
Brain damage can also occur naturally disruptive that he was forced to give up his
through viral infections such as encephalitis, work on an assembly line. It was then, in
© Larry R Squire

Henry Molaison Professor Larry Squire

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© Getty

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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

September 1953, that Henry sought the drastic his brain. The virus destroyed his medial temporal
The basal ganglia medical intervention that was to change his lobe and caused damage to areas in the wider
life – and neuroscience – forever. temporal lobe by severing connections between
The brain area Eugene and Henry used to
learn new skills is formed of these parts Without the complex tools we have today, brain cells. His resulting amnesia mirrored that
such as MRI scanners, which allow doctors of Henry Molaison, but the damage extending
Dorsal striatum to peer inside the body, Henry’s surgeon, Dr outwards through the temporal lobe also cost
Made of the caudate nucleus and putamen,
Scoville, removed a 54.5mm-long area on the him his sense of smell, impaired his semantic
this is important for planning, carrying out and
automating motor behaviour dependent on left side of his brain and a 44mm-long portion knowledge and caused anterograde amnesia
energy required and potential reward. This on the right: his medial temporal lobe. stretching back up to 50 years.
processing contributes to its role in forming
Without his medial temporal lobe, Henry’s 7KHZRUGȆVHPDQWLFȇLVGHȴQHGDVUHODWLQJ
habits and addiction.
epilepsy was partially alleviated, but the to meaning in language or logic, so semantic
Ventral striatum operation was not wholly successful, as he still knowledge is an understanding of language
Containing the nucleus accumbens and olfactory required anti-epileptic medication. He was also and how it works, and semantic memory is
tubercle, it evaluates risks/gains of behaviours.
left with severe amnesia, a form of memory loss remembering language, such as the names of
Globus pallidus that can present in different ways. objects. The logic aspect was tested by asking
This helps to regulate movement, motivation, For Henry, this meant he was unable to Eugene to identify and explain ambiguous
reward, aversion and the control of actions form new memories after the operation sentences. Eugene performed worse on these
and goals.
(known as retrograde amnesia) and had tasks than the ‘control’ participants (who had
Ventral pallidum forgotten memories he had formed in the no brain damage), whereas Henry did not have
This receives strong signals from the brain’s years immediately before his operation (partial any problems. This extra impairment for Eugene
emotional circuits in order to govern reward anterograde amnesia). Over his life, there was ZDVGXHWRWKHGDPDJHLQȵLFWHGRQKLVODWHUDO
and motivation behaviour and also produce
motor outputs. an increase in the number of years prior to the temporal lobe, which Henry did not experience.
operation that he could no longer remember. Yet despite this slight difference in the areas
Substantia nigra damaged, the two displayed many similarities.
This is important for regulating movement, and it Eugene Pauly
receives information from the striatum directly and
via the globus pallidus. It is the site of damage in Eugene was born in 1922 and grew up in The similarities
Parkinson’s disease. California, USA, eventually leaving home to Although the damage to their brains had been
become a radio operator for an oil company at caused by very different circumstances, both
Subthalamic nucleus
sea. Upon his return, he worked as an aerospace men were left without medial temporal lobes.
This region of the brain is involved in making
GL˥FXOWGHFLVLRQVSOXVVRPHPRWRUIXQFWLRQV,W technician. By 1992, he was enjoying a peaceful Therefore, neither Eugene nor Henry could
combines cognitive (thinking), emotional retirement with his wife when he suddenly form new memories, meaning they forgot
information and motor processes into an output. contracted viral encephalitis – a virus spreading to events almost instantly. Forgotten events
included every new occurrence, from meeting
someone new to eating breakfast. In fact,
Henry encountered health problems because
Frontal
cortex
Striatum

Substantia
nigra

Dopamine pathways

Functions
Reward (motivation)
Pleasure, euphoria
Motor function (fine tuning)
Compulsion
Perseveration

Serotonin pathways
Nucleus
accumbens
Functions
VTA (Ventral Mood
tegmental area) Memory processing
Raphe Sleep
nucleus Cognition
Hippocampus

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he would regularly forget that he’d eaten his

bacon roll in the morning and repeat the task,
resulting in him eating up to four of them for A piece of Henry
breakfast a day. Eugene would also sometimes and Eugene’s brains
was missing, due to
have multiple breakfasts as it was part of his
YHU\GL˴HUHQW
learnt morning routine, which he would forget circumstances.
he had already done.
The men’s amnesia meant they were both
FRQȴQHGWRWKHSUHVHQWWHQVHIUR]HQLQD
snapshot in time and permanently identifying subtypes, but Henry
themselves as being younger than they actually Eugene were pivotal
were. They would forget people as soon as they in revealing these
had been introduced and repeat statements initial distinctions.
WKH\KDGMXVWXWWHUHGDVLILWZHUHWKHȴUVWWLPH Declarative memory
they were saying them. However, both men is the conscious
had normal intellectual and cognitive functions ability to recall
aside from their memory issues. Although facts and events
both remained anonymous for most of their and is processed
lives, they were very willing to participate in by the medial
research. The research, which provided a rare temporal lobe.
insight into how memory works, was initiated Non-declarative
with Henry by PhD student Brenda Milner. memory is
Following this, more patients with medial unconscious
temporal lobe damage, like Eugene, were and describes
thoroughly analysed by neuroscientist Larry things such as motor
Squire. This intensive research revealed some skills, conditioning
YHU\VSHFLȴFOHDUQLQJWDVNVWKDWUHO\RQDUHDV and habits. Due to
other than the medial temporal lobe. their medial temporal

An alternative form
lobe damage, it is
declarative memory that
of memory Henry and Eugene lacked,
This learning potential demonstrates humans but thorough testing
have distinct types of memory – declarative revealed their capacity for
and non-declarative. Researchers have since non-declarative learning in spite of
IXUWKHUFODVVLȴHGWKHVHLQWRPRUHGHVFULSWLYH their injuries.

“The men’s amnesia

meant they would forget
people as soon as they
had been introduced”
© Getty, Shutterstock

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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Normal brain Henry’s brain

Hippocampus hippocampus
removed Image courtesy of © Rochelle Schwarz-Bloom, Duke
University. [Link]

One such experiment was a memory task

where two picture cards were presented to
the participants (people with medial temporal
lobe damage – also termed amnesiacs – and
‘control’ participants) in pairs. One card in
the pair had ‘correct’ written on the back. The
task was for the subjects to select the ‘correct’
card of the pair. The cards were always
presented in the same pairs, and the same
card was always ‘correct’, so a pattern could be
LGHQWLȴHGDQGPHPRULVHG
The amnesic patients were able to memorise
this task, albeit more slowly than the controls.
This suggested that they were learning the task
using a part of the brain other than the medial
temporal lobe, which had previously been
attributed to all forms of memory.
The brain region responsible for this
alternative form of memory was revealed
by a group of patients with Parkinson’s
disease. Parkinson’s disease is characterised
by the death of neurons in the basal ganglia,
an evolutionarily ‘old’ part of the brain
that has roles including movement and
reward behaviour. Parkinson’s patients
have intact medial temporal lobes, so their
comparison with amnesic patients presents a
double dissociation.
A double dissociation is the most conclusive
way to show a particular brain area is
responsible for a particular task. It compares a

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The Medial Temporal Lobe

group of patients with damage to one area and
an otherwise healthy brain with another group
with damage to a different area but a healthy Eugene and Henry’s medial temporal lobes were both destroyed. This part of the brain is
rest of the brain. In this case, amnesic patients responsible for learning and temporary storage of memory and is comprised of the following
had a healthy basal ganglia but damaged medial
Hippocampus Entorhinal cortex
temporal lobe, while Parkinson’s patients had a
Derived from the Greek for ‘seahorse’, the This section consolidates memory with regards to
healthy medial temporal lobe but damaged basal hippocampus is responsible for learning and sensory information by two-way communication with
ganglia. The Parkinson’s patients were able making new spatial (mental maps) and declarative the hippocampus.
to perform tasks that tested their declarative (facts and events) memories. It also links to the
emotional centres contributing past experiences to Perirhinal cortex
memory but not tasks like the card-pairing task, current emotional events. The function of this region is sensory perception that
which tested their non-declarative memory. enables an individual to recognise and memorise
Conversely, amnesic patients performed well in Parahippocampal cortex objects. It transmits sensory information to and from
the non-declarative tasks but not the declarative This area is responsible for episodic memory the hippocampus via the entorhinal cortex.
(personal experience) and visuospatial processing
tasks. Therefore, scientists concluded that the (navigating through a scene). These combine into Subicular complex
medial temporal lobe is in charge of declarative contextual associations, such as using context and With its name taken from the Latin for ‘support’, the
memory, while the basal ganglia is responsible previous experiences to make sense of surroundings. subicular complex receives and processes input
from other brain areas, for example it amplifies
for non-declarative memory. Amygdala signals from the hippocampus. The front of the

Habitual learning
This combines information to produce emotional subiculum mainly processes memory, movement
responses. It uses emotion to deduce the and spatial information, while the back can soften
The non-declarative memory of the basal ganglia attractiveness or aversiveness of something. the body’s stress response.
is underpinned by a gradual process called
habitual learning. This has now been shown in
rats to occur in the neostriatum within the basal
ganglia and is guided by the reward system.
The reward system relies on chemical signals
from the neurotransmitter dopamine. A habit is
formed when an individual receives a reward
for a certain behaviour that triggers a release of
dopamine in the basal ganglia, motivating them
to do it again. In animal models, this reward is
usually a piece of food, but it can be anything,
such as the human participants seeing the

© Getty

103
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

word ‘correct’ and being congratulated by the him, he was hostile and reluctant to be tested, This demonstrated that this working memory
experimenter when they turn over the right requiring persuasion from his wife. However, was being stored temporarily in an area
picture card. after several years of the same researchers other than the medial temporal lobe. Research
These subtle rewards are how the amnesic visiting him, he greeted them warmly and into attention and working memory has
patients Henry and Eugene developed habits in instinctively went to the table he was usually pointed to the involvement of several regions,
their daily lives following their brain injuries. tested at, even without his wife’s presence. from the prefrontal cortex to areas deep
The rewards become the goal and create Interestingly, he still denied ever having met within the brain.
the motivation to perform the goal-driven them or taking part in these tests before. All of these different forms of memory that
behaviour over and over until it becomes a This behaviour change illustrates habitual Henry and Eugene retained show just how
learnt subconscious habit. For example, Eugene learning by Eugene subconsciously and complex and nuanced process memory is. They
was able to go to his kitchen to get food when gradually over several years as a result of provided invaluable insight into the brain’s
he was hungry, as the food was the reward, but UHJXODURFFXUUHQFHVLQDVSHFLȴFHQYLURQPHQWDO DELOLW\WRȴQGQRYHOZD\VWRIXQFWLRQZKHQWKH
he was not able to recount where the kitchen context. Therefore, habitual learning is a very ordinary route is blocked.
was when asked, as this yielded no reward. VSHFLȴFIRUPRIOHDUQLQJWKDWLVLQWULQVLFDOO\ This incredible ability was cemented by the
6LPLODUO\KHOHDUQWDVSHFLȴFURXWHQHDUKLV dependent on ritual and repetition. fact that Henry managed to live a relatively
home where he would go for a daily walk and Repetition also comprised another form functional life for 55 years without a medial
ȴQGKLVZD\KRPHDJDLQGHVSLWHQRWEHLQJDEOH of memory Henry and Eugene were able to temporal lobe. Both men’s incredible brains
to consciously identify which house was his. exhibit: working – or immediate – memory. are now stored at the Brain Observatory in
The key to habitual learning is the cues Through repeating a string of numbers, San Diego, USA, and continue to contribute to
remaining identical. If a tree or roadworks they could retain the sequence in their minds QHXURVFLHQWLȴFNQRZOHGJHWRWKLVYHU\GD\
blocked his path, Eugene would be lost and for up to 20 seconds. They may not be known all that well in
unable to navigate home because the habit had However, if their attention was drawn WKHZLGHUZRUOGEXWZLWKLQWKHȴHOGRI
been disrupted. Similarly, if the picture cards elsewhere, they would instantly forget they had neuroscience, Henry and Eugene’s legacy
were presented in different pairs or together, even been tasked with remembering numbers. will live on forever.

“Eugene was able to go to his kitchen to get food,

the amnesic patients were unable to identify
the ‘correct’ cards.
Another example is the behavioural changes
as the food was the reward, but was not able to
recount where the kitchen was when asked”
Eugene showed over the 14 years he was
VWXGLHG:KHQH[SHULPHQWHUVȴUVWYLVLWHG

© Getty

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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Dementia: the
Cruellest Disease?
The various forms of dementia now affect 50 million people around the world.
There are 10 million new sufferers every year – and still no cure

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 D E M E N T I A : T H E
C R U E L L E S T D I S E A S E ?

A
lthough there is not ability to perform everyday tasks. In its most of the different forms of dementia overlap
much good to be found in advanced forms, dementia leaves the sufferer FRQVLGHUDEO\LWLVRIWHQGLɚFXOWIRUGRFWRUVWR
dementia, its increasing unable to survive without constant care. GLDJQRVHWKHVSHFLȴFIRUPRIGHPHQWLDIURP
prevalence is a consequence After Alzheimer’s, the next most common form which the patient is suffering.
of something undeniably of dementia is vascular dementia. This condition
good: we are all living can arise after suffering a stroke and accounts Risk factors for dementia
longer. While there are many risk factors for about a quarter of dementia cases. Other Above everything else, the chief risk factor for
associated with dementia, by far the most relatively common forms include dementia with developing dementia is age. This is particularly
important is age. Since people are living longer, Lewy bodies and frontotemporal dementia. true for the most common form of dementia,
it stands to reason that more of us run the risk A rarer type of dementia can be caused by Alzheimer’s. However, after the complex effects
of developing dementia. normal-pressure hydrocephalus, which results of ageing, other factors come into play. One of
In 1850, the average life expectancy for IURPH[FHVVFHUHEURVSLQDOȵXLG7KLVFRQGLWLRQ these is having a family history of the disease,
a European was 36.3 years, while in 2023, which increases the risk of inheriting genes that
it was 81.5 years. There is only a one-in-a- “A range of conditions predispose people to developing Alzheimer’s.

fall under the general

thousand risk of anyone under 60 developing There is also a strong association with
dementia. Before the astonishing increase in Down’s syndrome. Both Down’s syndrome and
life expectancy that we have seen over the last label of dementia” Alzheimer’s are associated with abnormalities in
150 years, there would have been few cases of chromosome 21. People suffering from Down’s
dementia as not many people lived long enough presents a triad of symptoms causing gait syndrome have a higher-than-average risk of
to develop it. But now, with an increasing abnormalities, incontinence and dementia (often developing Alzheimer’s as they age, with close
proportion of the population living into their called, in a diagnostic mnemonic, ‘wet, wacky to half of Down’s syndrome sufferers developing
90s and beyond, the number of people at and wobbly’). Several other disorders (including Alzheimer’s in their 60s (whereas it’s less than
risk from dementia has increased. For people Parkinson’s and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) and ten per cent in the wider population).
between 60 and 64, one in 100 will probably even some infections can also cause dementia. Apart from Down’s syndrome, other cognitive
develop dementia. For those between 75 and These conditions cause the deterioration in impairments also increase the risk of dementia.
79, that increases to six in 100. Between 90 and brain function and memory, collectively known While these factors are beyond personal control,
94, the risk jumps to 30 per cent, and for those DVGHPHQWLD2QHRIWKHGLɚFXOWLHVWKDWKDV others can be guarded against. For instance,
who live to 95 and older, the risk is 41 per cent. bedevilled the search for treatments is the lack KDYLQJDKLVWRU\RIKHDGLQMXULHVVLJQLȴFDQWO\
Fundamentally, dementia is a disease of ageing. of a satisfactory diagnostic test for the various increases the risk of dementia. Medical
different forms of dementia – particularly for advice regarding the effects of concussion is
What is dementia? Alzheimer’s. Diagnosis is based on a medical changing – the old days of playing rugby and
There are a range of conditions that fall under examination, tests and a case history, and EHLQJVHQWEDFNRQWKHȴHOGDVORQJDV\RXFRXOG
the general label of dementia. The most common UHTXLUHVVLJQLȴFDQWLPSDLUPHQWLQDWOHDVW stand up are thankfully past. However, low-
is Alzheimer’s, which affects between 50 and WZRRIWKHȴYHNH\PHQWDOIDFXOWLHVPHPRU\ intensity brain injuries can have a cumulative
70 per cent of dementia sufferers. The various language and communication, concentration effect, resulting in dementia. Sports that could
dementias impact the brain’s ability to think and and attention, judgement and reasoning, and potentially involve head injuries should be
© Getty

recall, having a dramatic effect on a person’s visual perception. However, since the symptoms performed with helmets where possible and

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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

FUXFLDOO\VXɚFLHQWWLPHPXVWEHJLYHQIRU can lead to dementia – our mental health

Is there anything we
people to recover from any concussion. can play a role, too. Studies have indicated
can do to avoid
getting dementia?
The classic signs of unhealthy living – that people over 55 who suffer from steadily
smoking, obesity and drinking, to name a increasing levels of depression are at greater
few – are also implicated in the development risk of developing dementia than those with The good news is that the things we can do
of dementia. Unsurprisingly, the medical low or variable levels. Wider studies have to reduce our risk of developing dementia
DGYLFHLVWRVWRSVPRNLQJNHHSȴWDQGGULQNLQ also shown that social isolation, which often DUHJHQHUDOO\EHQHȴFLDOWRRXURYHUDOOKHDOWK
moderation. Not only will this reduce the risk of increases as people get older, is linked to a and well-being. Ever wanted to learn a new
GHPHQWLDEXWLWZLOOVLJQLȴFDQWO\LPSURYH\RXU greater vulnerability to dementia. In fact, the language or how to play the guitar? Go for it.
overall health as well. lonelier and more isolated someone becomes It doesn’t matter how old you are: activities
On the health front, it’s not just the unholy as they get older, the greater their risk of that require intense concentration (preferably
trinity of smoking, drinking and obesity that developing dementia. paired with new muscle memories) are ideal.

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Learn to tango. Become a potter. Make ships out

of matchsticks. Sing, or better yet, join a choir. From the front line of dementia research
That way, the learning will be combined with We spoke to Dr Giovanna Lalli, the UK
fresh and exciting social relationships. Human Dementia Research Institute director of
beings are social animals and as a general rule, VFLHQWLILFD˴DLUVWRDVNKHUDERXWWKHIXWXUH
we need the company of others to function direction of dementia research. “It’s very
SURSHUO\6ROLWDU\FRQȴQHPHQWLVDSXQLVKPHQW important not to think in silos; at the UK
– don’t let it become a lifestyle. Aside from Dementia Research Institute, we’re
LQYHVWLJDWLQJGL˴HUHQWW\SHVRIGHPHQWLD
these activities, the medical conditions that can
ZKLFKDUHFKDUDFWHULVHGE\LQIODPPDWRU\
lead to strokes – and hence vascular dementia
VWDWHVE\PLVIROGLQJRUWKHDJJUHJDWLRQRI
– should also be guarded against. High among
toxic proteins. We’re tackling dementia from
these risk factors is diabetes, so exercise and GL˴HUHQWDQJOHVDQGSHUVSHFWLYHV²IURP
a healthy diet (which help reduce the chances JHQHWLFVWRWKHLQWHUDFWLRQVEHWZHHQEUDLQ
of developing type 2 diabetes) can, therefore, cells, vasculature and the immune system, to
reduce the risk of getting dementia. WKHLGHQWLILFDWLRQRIQRYHOELRPDUNHUV:HZDQW

The genetics of
WREHLQQRYDWLYHDQGGULYHDVWHSFKDQJHLQ
how we understand these diseases in order to
Alzheimer’s accelerate the discovery and delivery of
signalling to each other. By using the latest
Within the many variations of dementia, most LQWHUYHQWLRQVWRGLDJQRVHEXWDOVRWUHDWDQG
ultimately prevent dementia. This is our WHFKQRORJLHV²VXFKDVKLJKUHVROXWLRQ
research has been focused on investigating
XOWLPDWHJRDO²WKDW·VZK\ZHH[LVW:H·UH PLFURVFRS\DQGVLQJOHFHOOVHTXHQFLQJ
the genetics of Alzheimer’s. The strongest FXWWLQJHGJHQHXURLPDJLQJDQGSUREHVDEOH
JDLQLQJPRPHQWXPDQGWKHIDFWZH·UHDEOHWR
evidence for a genetic cause has been found
attract young talent from across the world is WRUHFRUGDFWLYLW\LQKXQGUHGVRIGL˴HUHQW
for a variant called early-onset Alzheimer’s H[FLWLQJ²ZHQHHGIUHVKWKLQNLQJIUHVK QHXURQVVLPXOWDQHRXVO\²DQGKDUQHVVLQJWKH
disease. As the name suggests, this devastating SHUVSHFWLYHVWRWDFNOHWKLVSUREOHP SRZHURIDOOWKHVHWHFKQLTXHVWRJHWKHUZLWK
form of the main syndrome manifests far “I’m optimistic we’re going to have insights coming from genetic studies can help
earlier than the more common late-onset form, EUHDNWKURXJKVLQRXUNQRZOHGJHRYHUWKH XVEHWWHUXQGHUVWDQGQRWRQO\KRZWKHEUDLQ
affecting people in their 30s to mid-60s. This FRPLQJ\HDUVEHFDXVHZHKDYHQHZPHWKRGV ZRUNVEXWDOVRKRZGHPHQWLDGHYHORSV7KHQ
variant affects less than ten per cent of all those RIVWXG\LQJKRZGL˴HUHQWW\SHVRIFHOOVLQWKH LWZLOOEHDFDVHRIWUDQVODWLQJWKHVHILQGLQJV
EUDLQLQWHUDFWDQGKRZGL˴HUHQWJHQHVDUH into treatments.”
who get Alzheimer’s.
Of those who suffer from early onset
Alzheimer’s, there is a small subset, affecting chromosome 19 called apolipoprotein E (APOE) While carrying the APOE 4 allele in
about 500 families around the world, where the has been found to play a role in the disease. chromosome 19 increases the risk of developing
disease is caused by mutations in chromosomes Of the different alleles (variants) of the gene, Alzheimer’s, and at a younger age, it is not a
1, 14 and 21. So, within a very small section the most common – APOE 3 – is neutral with QHFHVVDU\DQGVXɚFLHQWFRQGLWLRQ6RPHSHRSOH
of the population of people with Alzheimer’s respect to Alzheimer’s. On the other hand, the with the risk allele never develop the disease,
– probably less than one per cent – a direct allele APOE 2 may protect against Alzheimer’s, and others who do get Alzheimer’s do not have
genetic cause for the disease has been found. while APOE 4 is a risk factor for developing the the APOE 4 allele.
Scientists have not yet discovered a direct disease. However, with Alzheimer’s, nothing is Researchers have widened the search
trigger gene for the more common late-onset ever straightforward. for genes that might cause Alzheimer’s using
form of Alzheimer’s. However, a gene in genome-wide association studies, which look for

© Getty

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 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

A Possible Treatment for Alzheimer’s? OLQNVEHWZHHQVSHFLȴFJHQHV RUJHQHYDULDQWV 

and certain traits. These projects have revealed
Amid the general gloom over treatments for more regions in the genome (the complete DNA
Alzheimer’s, one approach has improved the of an organism) that appear to be associated
symptoms of some patients. Dr Dale Bredesen with the disease. Further research is needed to
²ZRUNLQJRQWKHEHOLHIWKDW$O]KHLPHU·VLVQRWD discover what roles these regions play in the
VLQJOHGLVHDVHEXWKDVDWOHDVWWKUHHGL˴HUHQW development of Alzheimer’s.
YDULHWLHV²FODLPVWRKDYHLGHQWLILHG
GL˴HUHQWIDFWRUVWKDWFRQWULEXWHWRWKHYDULRXV What does Alzheimer’s
forms of Alzheimer’s. For a treatment to work,
Dr Bredesen and his associates argue that the
do to the brain?
1RWKLQJJRRG7KHGLVHDVHZDVȴUVWLGHQWLȴHGE\
SDWLHQWKDVWREHDVVHVVHGWKRURXJKO\WRVHH
ZKLFKFRPELQDWLRQRIWKHVHIDFWRUVDUH Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist, in 1901.
implicated in causing Alzheimer’s, and then A woman named Auguste Deter, a patient at an
WKHFDXVDWLYHIDFWRUVKDYHWREHUHPRYHGRU asylum in Frankfurt, came to the attention of
ameliorated. According to Dr Bredesen, there $O]KHLPHU'XULQJWKHQH[WȴYH\HDUVXQWLOVKH
are three groups of causative factors: died in 1906, he became fascinated by her case.
LQIODPPDWLRQZKLFKPD\EHFDXVHGE\D When asked questions, Deter would reply, “Ich
FRPELQDWLRQRILQIHFWLRQVGLHWDQGRWKHU habe mich verloren.” (“I have lost myself.”)
causes; toxins, including moulds and continue. Those who have stopped the
When Deter died, Alzheimer examined
chemicals; and a decrease in the level of programme have reported a return of
her brain. He found it contained clumps of
KRUPRQHVDQGQXWULHQWVLQWKHERG\ $O]KHLPHU·VV\PSWRPVVRLWFDQ·WEH
protein called plaques. We now know that
2QFHWKHFRPELQDWLRQRIIDFWRUVD˴HFWLQJ considered a cure for the disease. However, it
is one of the very few treatments that has these plaques are made up of beta-amyloid
WKHSDWLHQWKDVEHHQLGHQWLILHGDGHWDLOHG
programme of exercise, diet, hormones and produced any improvement in symptoms. protein and are a key feature of the disease.
VXSSOHPHQWVLVSUHVFULEHG:KLOHWKH Further research and proper clinical trials are As Alzheimer’s progresses, it destroys brain
programme has produced an improvement in UHTXLUHGWRHYDOXDWHWKHWUHDWPHQW·VIXOO cells (called neurons) and disrupts the neurons’
VRPHRIWKHSDWLHQWVLWUHTXLUHVRQJRLQJ SRWHQWLDOIRUIXWXUHXVHLQWKHEDWWOHDJDLQVW connections with each other, a vital aspect
FRPPLWPHQWIRUWKHEHQHILFLDOH˴HFWVWR this most devastating of diseases. RIPHQWDOIXQFWLRQ8VXDOO\WKHGLVHDVHȴUVW
attacks the neurons in areas of the brain

“We still lack an

adequate understanding
of what causes most
forms of dementia”

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involved with memory before spreading to the

cerebral cortex and those areas responsible for
reasoning, language and behaviour. In someone
with late-stage Alzheimer’s, the brain will be
DWURSKLHGZLWKWKHVSHFLȴFUHJLRQVDIIHFWHGE\
Alzheimer’s reducing in volume.
Such major physical changes in the brains of
patients with Alzheimer’s are associated with
many microscopic and biochemical changes in
their brains, too. The beta-amyloid plaques that
$O]KHLPHUȴUVWLGHQWLȴHGIRUPFOXPSVEHWZHHQ
neurons, disrupting their function. Research
also suggests that the beta-amyloid plaques
interact with another feature of Alzheimer’s:
tangles of tau proteins. These tangles form
within the neurons and prevent nutrients
from being transported to the extremities
of the cells properly, and they stop neurons
from communicating effectively. It seems that
abnormal tau proteins gather in memory-related
parts of the brain, while beta-amyloid plaques
form between the neurons in these regions.
When the amount of beta-amyloid plaques
reaches a critical level, a cascade of abnormal
tau proteins spreads through the rest of the
brain, causing neuronal collapse.
Other research has pointed to chronic
LQȵDPPDWLRQLQWKHEUDLQEHLQJDQRWKHUFDXVH
of Alzheimer’s. The cells that normally clean
away accumulated junk chemicals in the brain
(the microglia and astrocytes) fail to do their job
and – as a double whammy – start to produce a
FKHPLFDOWKDWFDXVHVFKURQLFLQȵDPPDWLRQDQG
further neuronal damage.
exhibit similar symptoms, then researchers will one of the biggest health issues of our time. As

What are the prospects KDYHWRȴQGDZD\WRGLVWLQJXLVKWKHYDULRXV

forms of the disease before they are able to
such, there urgently needs to be more support,
not just for the person diagnosed but also
IRUHˤHFWLYHWUHDWPHQWV for the often-silent generation of caregivers.
or even a cure?
GHYHORSVSHFLȴFWUHDWPHQWVIRUHDFKW\SH,W
is a complex and time-consuming task, but if 7KH\H[SHULHQFHȴUVWKDQGWKHGHYDVWDWLQJ
In the short term, poor. We still lack an adequate Alzheimer’s should prove to be a single disease changes this condition can bring for a partner
understanding of what causes most forms of with multiple causes – even if those causes are or family member.
dementia. The causes of Alzheimer’s are proving harder to identify – a treatment might then be “Dementia UK’s Admiral Nurse Dementia
particularly opaque. It was hoped that drugs HDVLHUWRȴQG Helpline takes many calls from people facing
designed to remove the build-up of beta-amyloid dementia, including from carers in distress.
plaques would treat or even cure the disease, but The importance of care When talking to carers, Admiral Nurses can
these initial hopes have been dashed. Multiple With a cure for Alzheimer’s and other forms of provide unique expertise and experience to a
drug tests aimed at treating beta-amyloid plaques dementia still a long way off, the importance of condition that has over 200 subtypes. They can
have failed. However, several alternative theories how we care for those living with these conditions get to the heart of carer’s challenges, allowing
regarding the cause of Alzheimer’s have been grows more apparent. In many cases, the carer is them to see the importance of making time for
advanced recently, including environmental WKHVSRXVHRIWKHSDWLHQWDȴQDOVHUYLFHSDLGLQ themselves and accessing the right support for
WR[LQVLQȵDPPDWLRQDQGEDFWHULDOYLUDODQG honour and love. But it is not easy. their circumstances.”
fungal infections. We spoke to Dementia UK’s Pat Brown, who
A possible implication of this multiplication of works on their Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline, If you are a carer, or know a carer who is
proposed causes is that Alzheimer’s might not to learn more about the importance of caregiving struggling, or require any help and support
be a single disease or that it is a single disease and the needs of carers. with dementia, ring the Dementia UK helpline
but with many different causes. If Alzheimer’s “With the population living longer, there on 0800 888 6678. The helpline is staffed
© Getty

is actually many different conditions that are more diagnoses of dementia – it is now exclusively by experienced Admiral nurses.

111
112
113
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

Animals with
excellent memories
From resentful birds to logical sea lions, meet the animals
putting our own memories to shame

F
or a long time, it was a few seconds afterwards, many are
believed that humans were capable of creating stores of information
the only beings capable that they might need later. This relies
of exhibiting ‘advanced’ on ‘associative memory’; a dog stung
cognitive processes like by a bee will soon forget the trauma of
deduction and remembering the actual attack, but connections that
information. However, in the short time are subsequently formed in its brain
that scientists have been studying the mean that it will associate bees’ nests
memories of other species, there have with danger in the future and thus stay
been a lot of surprises. Animals ranging well away. Experts think that animals
from apes to insects have demonstrated may have highly specialised systems in
unexpected abilities and applications. their brains that ensure ‘biologically
A study of 25 species (including dogs, relevant’ information key for survival, like
bees, rats and dolphins) found the average food sources and threats, are stored as
short-term memory of an animal lasts 27 long-term memories.
seconds. Dogs lose all recollection of an Compared to our knowledge of other
event two minutes after it happens, while areas of their lives, scientists are only in
chimps can only hold on to memories for the early stages of understanding animal
about 20 seconds. Short-term memory memory. There may be species out there
appears to be one area where humans are with memories stronger than anyone would
strong, but when it comes to the long-term, expect. After hundreds of years of being
WKHSOD\LQJȴHOGLVDOLWWOHPRUHHYHQ underestimated, we’re just beginning to
While most animals are unable to realise that animals might know more than
UHPHPEHUVSHFLȴFHYHQWVPRUHWKDQ we think they do...

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Dolphins
'ROSKLQVDUHDOZD\VDPRQJWKHȴUVWWRFRPH
up in discussions of animal intelligence, and
they appear to have long-term memories to
match. Research into bottlenose dolphins
has shown that each one has a ‘name’ – a
unique whistle used by the other members
of a pod. A recent study of captive dolphins
that had moved between different facilities
found that they recognised and responded
to the whistles of old acquaintances even
after 20 years apart.
In the wild, bottlenose dolphins live
LQDȴVVLRQIXVLRQVRFLHW\WKHVL]HDQG
composition of each pod change frequently
as groups split, join up again and form new
combinations. Remembering past pod-mates
and maintaining relationships over many
years might make the complex
task of choosing and slotting
into a new group slightly
smoother for these highly
social creatures.

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Elephants
They say an elephant never forgets, and there’s some sources. Distinguishing relatives from strangers helps
truth to the saying. While they can’t remember everything NHHSYXOQHUDEOHFDOYHVVDIHIURPSRWHQWLDOFRQȵLFWDQG
they’ve ever experienced, elephants do have an incredibly knowledge of the area could be life-saving if a foraging site
strong ability to store and recall important information. or watering hole becomes inaccessible.
Living in groups that range over large territories, According to research, matriarchs are capable of
social and spatial memory are both vital for survival. remembering both the identities and the last known
Matriarchs, the leaders and decision-makers of the locations of up to 30 other elephants, creating a mental
herds, have shown precise memories of relationships map that allows the herd to regroup after breaking up
with other elephants and routes to food and water into smaller foraging parties.

Clark’s Nutcrackers Corvids are known for their intelligence, and

Clark’s nutcracker certainly lives up to the
family’s reputation. Using a pouch under its
tongue that can hold up to 150 pine seeds at
DWLPHWKLVLQGXVWULRXVELUGȵLHVWKURXJKWKH
forest, collecting food and storing it in the
ground for the cold months. Seeds are usually
cached in groups of three or four, and over a
season, a Clark’s nutcracker can stash away
more than 90,000.
Nine months later, it demonstrates its strong
long-term spatial memory by recalling the
locations of around 20,000 of its hiding spots
and retrieving the seeds, even when the ground
is covered in thick snow. Remembering as many
cache sites as possible is crucial for this bird,
EXWLWȇVWKHIHZWKDWJHWIRUJRWWHQWKDWEHQHȴW
the forest; left in the ground, some of the seeds
germinate and begin to grow into new pines.

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Butterflies
and moths
0RWKVDQGEXWWHUȵLHVPLJKWQRWKDYHYDVW
memories like some of the other species
on this list, but there is something quite
remarkable about them: they can remember
things they learned as caterpillars. Despite
most of their tissues breaking down and
reforming during metamorphosis, scientists
have discovered that at least part of the brain
is preserved. Researchers used mild electric
shocks to teach tobacco hornworm caterpillars
to avoid ethyl acetate, a chemical used in nail
varnish remover and found that almost 80 per
cent still avoided the scent after transforming
© Getty

into adult moths.

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Horses
As herd animals, understanding social
cues and relationships are vital traits
for horses. This ability goes beyond
members of their own species: horses
have been shown to read and remember
human facial expressions, too.
Scientists showed horses a photo of
human models looking either happy
or angry. When the model arrived in
person with a neutral expression, horses
that had seen them scowling in the
photo became more agitated. Those who
had seen a smiling photo spent more
time looking at the model with their
right eye, the preferred eye for looking
at social stimuli and positive sights.

Paper wasps
The possibility of intelligence in insects was
dismissed for a long time because it was thought
their brains were just too small to manage more
than simple functions. But wasps have proven to
be surprisingly good with faces.
Paper wasps are ‘eusocial’, meaning they
live in large, structured groups that cooperate
to raise young and defend their homes.
Entomologists already knew that these wasps
could recognise the face patterns of individuals
they were in frequent contact with – an
ability that probably makes it easier to detect
LQWUXGHUVȂVRWKHQH[WORJLFDOVWHSZDVWRȴQG
out how long they could hold these patterns
in their memories for. Michael Sheehan and
Elizabeth Tibbetts of the University of Michigan
GHFLGHGWRȴQGRXW
In a feat not seen before in any insect
species, paper wasps were able to tell the
difference between familiar and unfamiliar
faces, even when they hadn’t seen their nest
mates for a week.

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Rio
After her mother didn’t appear to be caring for
her properly, Rio, a Californian sea lion, was raised
by humans at the Long Marine Lab in California.
Marine biologists began to train Rio when she
was around six years old and were impressed by
her ability to learn tricks more complicated than
those usually found in sea lion displays. Rio began
to show an understanding of ‘sameness’, choosing
symbols matching those held up by the biologists to
HDUQȴVKUHZDUGV
In 2001, ten years after she’d been taught her
matching trick, the researchers returned. Even
though she hadn’t performed the trick or been
reminded of it since 1991, Rio was just as good at
PDWFKLQJDVVKHKDGEHHQWKHȴUVWWLPHDURXQG
This extraordinary sea lion was even able to match
symbols she’d never seen before, demonstrating an
understanding of the rules of the game rather than
just a recollection of familiar symbols.

Ayumu
Ayumu the chimpanzee is a third-generation

Crows
memory champ, part of a decades-long study into
chimp cognition at the Primate Research Institute
of Kyoto University in Japan.
With their bright, beady eyes and history of crows and banding their legs. Anyone Not long after his birth in 2000, Ayumu began
being linked to all things dark and foreboding, later walking through the area with the to participate in memory tasks. His most famous
it might not be a complete surprise to learn that same mask on was loudly ‘scolded’ by the skill involves remembering the position of nine
crows use some of their formidable intelligence banded crows, even three years after the UDQGRPO\SODFHGQXPEHUVWKDWȵDVKXSRQD
to judge and torment humans. birds had been caught. touchscreen computer for a fraction of a second
To be fair to these misrepresented birds, It seems that the crows had focused on and then touching the positions in sequential order.
they only hold grudges against people who faces because the dress, body and gait of Ayumu had quicker response times and higher
have treated them badly or caused them the person wearing the mask didn’t have to accuracy rates than university students attempting
GLVWUHVV5HVHDUFKHUVFRQȴUPHGWKLVFRUYLG match the original researcher for them to the task, challenging the belief that humans have
© Getty

justice system by wearing masks, capturing begin their tirade. an unrivalled working memory.

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Chaser
Chaser the border collie holds the record for
the largest tested memory of a non-human
animal. At just a few months old, Chaser
started to show signs of understanding that
certain objects had names, and from then
on, she worked with her owner – researcher
John Pilley – to see just how much she was
capable of learning.
By the time she died in 2019, Chaser could
correctly identify and retrieve 1,022 toys
by name. In addition to her impressive
memory, Chaser was also capable of
inference; on hearing an unfamiliar name,
she was able to work out that she must be
looking for a new toy.

Octopuses
&HSKDORSRGVȂRFWRSXVHVVTXLGDQGFXWWOHȴVKȂ
are in a league of their own when it comes to
invertebrate brain power. With much more
complex nervous systems, their cognitive
ability is thought to be nearer to that of a
mammal than any of their close relatives.
In fact, the common octopus’s 500 million
neurons are close to the number found in the
common marmoset.
Octopuses play, learn, solve problems and
possibly even dream. They can recognise
individual human faces and appear to
remember them, too.
In 2010, biologists at the Seattle Aquarium
SUHVHQWHG3DFLȴFRFWRSXVHVZLWKDȆQLFHȇNHHSHU
and a ‘nasty’ keeper. The nice keeper fed the
octopuses regularly, while the nasty keeper
touched them with a stick tipped with bristles.
After just two weeks of this treatment, all eight
octopuses behaved differently when the mean
keeper entered the room.

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Blue whales
Every year, blue whales set off on the long
migration between their breeding and
feeding grounds. Many migratory species
seek out the best food sources available
each season, but blue whales appear to be
guided more by the past than the present.
Combining ten years of data on the migratory
movements of these whales, researchers
observed with surprise that they timed their
journeys and chose their routes to match the
historical average timing and location of the
annual boom in krill numbers.
Rather than swimming in search of their
food as it becomes available, blue whales
head for patches of the ocean where they
remember krill being plentiful in previous
years – choosing stable, high-quality feeding
SDWFKHVRYHUQHZEXWSRWHQWLDOO\ȵHHWLQJ
areas of abundant food.

A miracle memory
boost?
Sadly not, but that isn’t stopping people
buying prevagen
You won’t find jellyfish on this list because the
gelatinous creatures have no brains – just a
simple set of nerves that allows them to sense
and react to their surroundings. Despite this, a
protein found in jellyfish is being marketed as
a miracle memory booster.
Prevagen, a ‘supplement’ that claims to
improve memory and sharpen the mind,
uses apoaequorin – a protein produced by
Aequorea victoria, a bioluminescent
species also known as the crystal jelly – as
its main ingredient. There’s no evidence that
LWKDVDQ\H˴HFWRQWKHKXPDQEUDLQ²WKH
only research paper suggesting it might was
written by the company behind Prevagen,
and their methods weren’t exactly standard.
Even after lawsuits were filed against the
company, consumers continue to spend
more than $60 (£50) for a month’s supply.
They’re all dreaming of better memories, but
taking the supplement will do about as much
for their brains as eating a bowl of jelly.
© Getty, Alamy

The crystal jelly epitomises the saying, ‘The lights

are on, but no one’s home’

121
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

7KHGDˤRGLOLVD
SULPHH[DPSOHRI
plant memory,
EORRPLQJDFFRUGLQJ
to the temperature
DQGOHQJWKRIGD\

Do plants
have a memory?
We all know that Mother Nature is mesmerising, but can one of her
championed creations access the capacity to learn and form memories?

T
o the untrained eye, it may memory. The plant itself, aptly named ‘pudica’ plants and concluded that there is more than
look as though plants don’t from the Latin meaning ‘shy’, responds to gentle one type present: short-term memory, immune
have any long-term plans, touch and stimulation by instinctively closing its memory and transgenerational memory. For
but in fact, the opposite is OHDYHVDQGGURRSLQJ7KH9HQXVȵ\WUDS 'LRQDHD example, while the short-term memory in a
true. Drooping when they muscipula) responds to touch in a similar 9HQXVȵ\WUDSLVJHQHUDWHGE\HOHFWULFDOVLJQDOV
lack water, growing towards way by ensnaring any prey that dices with sent when a bug lands on its leaves, the
sunlight and perking up through rain – all of death around its leaves. The latter remembers longer-term memories are formed in the DNA
these common responses to changes in their routinely that two of the hairs on its leaves need and are passed on to other generations of the
environment are shared among many species to be touched by a bug before it can shut. plant in transgenerational memory. The same
and show that they retain information. Both of these plants’ responses to touch can be said for seasonal plants like daffodils,
The Mimosa pudica, known as the ‘sensitive’ suggest that memory is present, as they repeat which only bloom during certain months.
RUȆVOHHS\ȇSODQWLVRQHRIWKHȴUVWWKDWVSULQJV the same pattern of behaviour relentlessly. Many This is something commonly referred to
to mind when discussing whether plants have scientists have studied the effects of memory on as vernalisation, which Russian scientist

F L O R A , F A U N A
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122
 D O P L A N T S
H A V E A M E M O R Y ?

7URȴP/\VHQNRGHYHORSHGLQIROORZLQJ the plant’s memory of winter by exposing it 7KH0LPRVD

a famine in several regions of the Soviet to short bursts of cold and hot temperatures. SXGLFDUHVSRQGV
Union. He observed that he could make They found that the plants formed lasting DOPRVWLPPHGLDWHO\
WRWRXFKE\
FROGZHDWKHUSODQWVȵRXULVKWKURXJKRXW impressions of the cold rather quickly. GURSSLQJDQG
the year by providing low temperatures for Although, at the time not referred to as a IROGLQJLWVOHDYHV
seeds and infant plants. Not only was this VWXG\VSHFLȴFDOO\ORRNLQJLQWRSODQWPHPRU\ LQZDUGV
breakthrough ideal for agriculture, as it LWLVQRZVHHQDVRQHRIWKHPRVWLQȵXHQWLDO
meant that crop yields could be manipulated breakthroughs. The experiments concluded
to produce ample food, but it also showed that plants can hold on to their pasts for much
that plants were remembering, through longer than originally thought. Researchers
temperature, when to bloom. are hoping that this evidence will one day
,QVFLHQWLVWV*HRUJ0HOFKHUVDQG$QWRQ HQDEOHXVWRȆWUDLQȇSODQWVIRURXUEHQHȴW
Lang continued important investigations into making severe conditions like drought and
the mystery of plant memory by studying the small crop yields one less thing for farmers
KHQEDQHȵRZHU7KH\SUREHGWKHOLPLWVRI to worry about. 0LPRVD3XGLFD
The mimosa pudica habitually shuts its
“7KH\SUREHGWKHOLPLWVRIWKHSODQW´VPHPRU\ leaves through touch, but an Australian
scientist has proven they can be taught not to
RIZLQWHUE\H[SRVLQJLWWRVKRUWEXUVWVRI In 2014, Australian biologist Monica
Gagliano showed that plants may have
FROGDQGKRWWHPSHUDWXUHV” memory and the capacity to learn by
closely studying the Mimosa pudica, or the
‘shy plant’, which folds its leaves after being
touched. Gagliano routinely dropped 56 of
the plants from a height of six inches on
more than 60 occasions to observe whether
or not she could train them to not
instinctively curl their leaves upon falling.
After a period of time, Gagliano gradually
noticed that the plants stopped closing their
leaves upon impact, observing that the
plants seemed to figure out that falling
wasn’t going to hurt them. A week later, she
resumed the dropping of the plants, and still
they remained unfazed. Gagliano repeated
this for a period of 28 days, and still, the
plants ‘remembered’ what they had learnt.
Gagliano concluded in her paper that
“plants may lack brains, but they do possess
a sophisticated signalling network”.

7KURXJKPHPRU\DQGHOHFWULFDO
VLJQDOOLQJWKHFDUQLYRURXV
9HQXVIO\WUDSNQRZVH[DFWO\ 7URILP/\VHQNRPDGHJUHDWGLVFRYHULHVLQWR
© Getty

ZKHQWRVKXWLWVOHDYHV YHUQDOLVDWLRQ+HVSHFLILFDOO\LGHQWLILHGKRZSODQWV
XVHVWRUHGPHPRULHVWRNQRZZKHQWREORRPDQQXDOO\

123
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

AI, robots
and the
future of
memory
How computer scientists are taking
inspiration from the human brain to
design incredible virtual copycats

M
emory is possibly humanity’s greatest tool. Without
memory, there would be no language, no advanced
social structure… no plans at all. Memory is an
exponential gift; the more we already know, the
easier it often is to deconstruct and make sense of
new but similar information. Our memories allow
us to connect seemingly disparate parts of information together: an
DFFRPSOLVKHGPDWKHPDWLFLDQZLOOWUDQVLWLRQLQWRWKHȴHOGRISK\VLFVZLWK
relative ease; a professional athlete will often learn a new sport much
faster than an amateur. With such a powerful asset in our arsenal, it’s
understandable that so many computer scientists long to grant a similar
gift to their software.
We understand a great deal about our own biological memory
machinery, but our familiarity remains peppered with caveats
and missing knowledge. At their core, memories are formed by
neurons – brain cells entangled in a complex web of connectivity
WULOOLRQFRQQHFWLRQVVWURQJ:KHQHQJDJHGQHXURQVȴUHDQGVHQGD
cascading electrical signal through the brain, stimulating their neighbours
if the signal is strong enough. This much is understood, yet modern
QHXURVFLHQWLȴFUHVHDUFKVKRZVLQGLUHFWHYLGHQFHRIQHXURQȴULQJȆHFKRHVȇ
ZKLFKFRQWLQXHWRȴUHDIWHUWKHVLJQDOKDVHQGHG7KHUHLVDOVRHYLGHQFH
WKDWGXULQJWKHIRUPDWLRQRIȆVLOHQWȇPHPRULHVȂZKLFKDUHIRUPHGZLWKRXW
our active, conscious participation – the activity of the brain is peculiar in
its quietness. Computer scientists attempting to emulate the memory feats
of the brain are faced with two formidable obstacles. They must design
a complex architecture that can rival the still incompletely understood
RUJDQLFEUDLQDQGWKH\QHHGDFRPSXWHUSRZHUIXODQGHɚFLHQWHQRXJKWR
store the swathes of knowledge.
2QHRIWKHPRVWSRSXODUIRUPVRIȆOHDUQLQJȇDOJRULWKPVLVWKHQHXUDO
network. Roughly based on the human brain, a neural network is
arranged in layers of nodes that play the part of neurons. Once they’ve
UHFHLYHGDQLQSXWWKHQRGHVZLOORQO\ȆȴUHȇWRFRQQHFWHGQRGHVLIWKH

F L O R A , F A U N A
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124
A I , R O B O T S A N D T H E
F U T U R E O F M E M O R Y

Although it can be
useful, designing
software with memory-
like features isn’t always
necessary, such as in
the case of facial
recognition
© Getty

125
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

input signal is strong enough, emulating the

basic principle of our brain chemistry. Basic
neural networks learn through a process known
DVEDFNSURSDJDWLRQ7KHDOJRULWKPZLOOȴUVW
EHȆWUDLQHGȇWRPDNHWKHFRUUHFWFODVVLȴFDWLRQ
(such as “this is a dog, and this is a cat”). If
WKHDOJRULWKPJHWVWKHFODVVLȴFDWLRQZURQJ
in training, the error is noted and passed
backwards into the neural network, forcing it
to adjust how much weight it awards certain
features. In the case of the two animals, the
algorithm may learn to pay less attention
to the colour of the coat and focus more on
the shape of the animal’s eyes, for example.
Algorithms based on this principle have
proven capable of recognising patterns in
previously unseen data, provided they have
large data sets to learn from.
Simple neural networks can be compared
WRWHDFKLQJORQJWHUPPHPRU\LQWKDWWKURXJK
lots of repetition, the algorithm can learn to Much of the inspiration for programming memory
recognise familiar stimuli. However, such has come from the human brain. Consolidating
memories while we sleep, for example, helped
networks are not encoded to remember inspire the ‘compressive transformer’ code
the period of learning. In our animal
H[DPSOHWKHȴQDODOJRULWKPPD\FRQȴGHQWO\ uphill in another direction. In a race against
predict the appearance of a dog by solely a robot with no memory, merely having a
using the proportions of its nose, mouth, and memory that’s forgotten two steps later would
whiskers – but it won’t remember that it once EHKXJHO\EHQHȴFLDO3OXVLIWKHJRDOLVVLPSO\
found the eyes a useful marker as well. This is to ascend to the top of the hill, then having the
not an issue when classifying images; in fact, robot retain knowledge of every previous step
not having to worry about memory is actually LVUHVRXQGLQJO\LQHɚFLHQW+RZHYHULIRXUJRDO
an asset to many algorithms. LVWRFUHDWHDJHQHUDODUWLȴFLDOLQWHOOLJHQFHZLWK
The memory problem in computer science KXPDQOLNHPHPRU\ZHȇOOQHHGWRGREHWWHU
is a big one, primarily because having your One sophisticated way of getting around
algorithm remember what it did in every step the problem of remembering every piece of
TXLFNO\WDNHVXSDVLJQLȴFDQWDPRXQWRIVWRUDJH information is designing an algorithm that
space. With that being the case, designing an can recognise and remember only the critical
DOJRULWKPZLWKQRPHPRU\FDQZRUNȴQH parts. Humans innately acquire this ability; as
Imagine a humanoid robot with the assigned children, when we learn to tie our shoelaces, we
goal of ascending a snaking, uphill route to remember the motions of wrapping the fabric Google’s DeepMind, led by founder and CEO Demis
the top of a hill. In one action, the robot is into a bow, but we don’t recall how the lace Hassabis, is at the forefront of designing computer
models with advanced working memories
GHVLJQHGWRGRWKHIROORZLQJLWȴUVWUDQGRPO\ felt. In 1997, a paper written by scientists Sepp
chooses a direction, either forward, backwards, Hochreiter and Jürgen Schmidhuber introduced
left or right, then extends a foot to test the HTXDWLRQVSHUWDLQLQJWRȆORQJVKRUWWHUP
surface. If the direction goes uphill, the robot memory’, which provided such a memory trick
completes the step. If not, it withdraws to its in computer form.
current position. Even without remembering Ȇ/RQJVKRUWWHUPPHPRU\ȇDOJRULWKPVZRUN
where it came from or what direction it tried, by allowing the algorithm to decide on what
the robot will ascend to the top of the hill. information to remember, what parts to
Although, to a human observer, it may prove forget and when to overlook them. A popular
painfully dull to watch. application of this technology has been in
We can, however, get the robot there faster language modelling. When asking an algorithm
E\JUDQWLQJLWDWLQ\ELWRIVKRUWWHUPPHPRU\ to predict the next word in a sentence, having it
If the robot had stepped forward and travelled UHPHPEHUWKHSUHYLRXVȴYHZRUGVLVW\SLFDOO\
uphill in its previous action, it would have enough to generate a coherent speech. However,
preferred to try to go forward again. If last ORQJVKRUWWHUPPHPRU\DOJRULWKPVKDYHEHHQ
Neural networks are roughly based on the human
time going forward didn’t lead uphill, then used to take this technology further, enabling brain, with layers of ‘neurons’ that are only activated
it’ll avoid trying to go forward until it’s moved the computer to remember a crucial piece of when the signal feeding into them is strong enough

F L O R A , F A U N A
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126
 A I , R O B O T S A N D T H E
F U T U R E O F M E M O R Y

information and retain it until it ceases to be ȆFRPSUHVVLYHWUDQVIRUPHUȇ7KLVFRGHDWWHPSWV no meaning at all – the algorithm is following
relevant and can be forgotten. As a simple to emulate the consolidation of memories a recognised pattern. This realisation reveals
example, an algorithm tasked with writing up that occurs as we sleep. With a compressive both the potential and the limitations.
a report for a football match would remember transformer in its code, a model will squish Synthetic memory is becoming
WKHVFRUHZDVXQWLODWHDPVFRUHG$WVXFK important bits of relevant information into a possible, unlocking exceptional powers of
DSRLQWWKHVFRUHZRXOGEHUHPHPEHUHG compressed form rather than discard them computational mimicry. However, we remain
DQGFRXOGEHIRUJRWWHQDVLWZRXOGFHDVHWR when they get older. The combination of these far away from an algorithm that understands
impact the text moving forward. KXPDQLQVSLUHGPHFKDQLFVLVDOUHDG\EHDULQJ the meaning and power of its actions.
Researchers at Google’s DeepMind, one of fruit. When shown an example of exceptional Therefore, despite its incredible importance
WKHJURXSVDWWKHIRUHIURQWRIWKHDUWLȴFLDO OLWHUDU\SURVHDFRPSUHVVLRQWUDQVIRUPHU to the evolution and advancement of
LQWHOOLJHQFHȴHOGKDYHVXEVHTXHQWO\LPSURYHG equipped algorithm has been able to recreate humankind, memory will form a comparatively
upon the memory algorithm by once more the quality faithfully. Similar models can even much smaller step toward the creation of a
turning to the human copy Shakespeare JHQHUDODUWLȴFLDOLQWHOOLJHQFH

“Neural networks can

brain for inspiration. ZLWKKLJKȴGHOLW\
Unlocking memory in
Applications of a
7KHLUȴUVWLPSURYHPHQW
– which has also been be compared to a long- computers is
pioneered by others in
WKHȴHOGȂLVWRHQFRGH term memory... Through
already paving
the way to faithful
memory machine
repetition the algorithm
The main advantage of memory-based
ȆDWWHQWLRQȇDVZHOODV reconstructions neural networks (also called recurrent neural

can recognise stimuli” networks) over their non-memory-storing

working memory. In of our written
humans, our working word – an integral cousins is that memory algorithms can
memory is described step in a world handle sequential data. This means that they
can recognise and predict patterns in a
as the ability to attain and access relevant where we actively engage with computers sequence (such as words) or through time.
information, while attention is to selectively every day. Such breakthrough technologies This second asset can be incredibly powerful
process the information we encounter in the will also undoubtedly soon manifest in for predicting the future based on ‘memories’
the algorithm has acquired from past events.
environment. DeepMind algorithms have been our virtual assistants, allowing us to enjoy
7UD˵FIORZWKHZHDWKHUDQGVWUHVVHVDFWLQJ
designed to use attention to be selective over QDWXUDOVRXQGLQJFRQYHUVDWLRQVZLWKRXU on dams have all been accurately
the information retained by the model, helping ȆVPDUWȇPDFKLQHV forecasted using similar models. However,
to ensure that vital information isn’t lost and What is simultaneously fascinating and the application of memory algorithms to
predicting changes in the stock market
that excessive information isn’t stored. This is frightening about these memory algorithms is
may prove the most impactful over the
especially useful when the scientists need to that they can now become highly competent at foreseeable future.
train their model with lots of different data. In fairly complex tasks without any understanding The stock market – where shares in
these instances, even retaining all pieces of data of what they’re creating. To an algorithm, companies are constantly traded, inflating
and deflating their value – is notoriously
EULHȵ\ZRXOGUHTXLUHDPDVVLYHPHPRU\ the literary pieces it generates are formed by
volatile and complex, making it hard to
,QDGGLWLRQWRWKLVDQRWKHUKXPDQLQVSLUHG following logical, statistically driven inputs. predict with any degree of accuracy by a
forerunner technique used by DeepMind is the The memories and the words themselves hold human. However, memory-storing models
have proven considerably more capable of
accomplishing the task. For input data, which
form the ‘memories’ of the model, scientists
use previous stock market fluctuation trends
as well as financial news. These input data
have been used to inform algorithms based
on long short-term memory, creating models
that can accurately predict dips and rises in
stock prices into the near future.

© Getty, Alamy

Deep neural networks have been used in software Memory-forming models have been frequently
that’s capable of completing complex tasks, such used to forecast changes in stock market prices
as defeating a world champion of the game Go

127
 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY

How technology
changes our memory
Has our ability to recall events, stats and facts waned
because of a reliance on smartphones and computers?

P
arents often tell their substantially. Those who grew up without we use these devices to look up information.
children that looking at smartphones will recall when they could In 2011, researchers found that when we look
smartphones and computers recite phone numbers from memory, but up facts and statistics online, we are less likely
all day will rot their brains, the same cannot be said today. Is technology to remember that content, but our brain is still
but is this an old wives’ to blame? Are parts of our brains that were memorising information. This is known as the
tale, or are our gadgets once active now dormant thanks to our ‘Google effect’. Our brains are not retaining the
really hurting our brains? Many of us spend a reliance on gadgets? information we have looked up but instead,
VLJQLȴFDQWDPRXQWRIRXUGD\ZLWKWHFKQRORJ\ The short answer is no. Technology hasn’t they are remembering where the information
either for work or recreationally to pass the ruined our memory; instead, it could be can be found. So, our brains are still working
time but, over the past 15 years, the amount changing how memory is used. It is believed to remember, but we may not be memorising
of time spent on these devices has grown that a different part of our brain is active when the information we want to. Going back to

F L O R A , F A U N A
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128
 H O W T E C H N O L O G Y
C H A N G E S O U R M E M O R Y

Switching from one device to another prevents

Younger the brain from focusing
smartphone users
are likely to check
their device more
regularly

the example of remembering phone numbers:

before smartphones, we used to manually
“Are parts of our brains
input phone numbers and doing this repeatedly that were once active
would ingrain them into our memory. But
because we can effortlessly call someone in a
now dormaant thanks
few steps on our smartphones today, there is no to gadgets?” Those who use their smartphones during concerts will
have weaker recollection compared to those who don’t
need for our brain to remember the number;
exam, the temptation to turn to our phone
Memory-saving tech
LQVWHDGZHȴ[DWHKRZZHFDQȴQGLW
Another experiment sent groups of or open a new tab on an internet browser to
people out on a tour, with some participants see what’s going on can be too great to resist,
A study in 2013 found that playing brain
encouraged to use their smartphones to take but constantly switching from task to task training games for 15 minutes a day, five
photos and videos of the experience while prevents the brain from retaining information. days a week, can improve working memory.
others were told not to. The study found those A 2015 survey of over 15,000 adults in the USA Elevate is one of the most popular apps on
the market; available for both iOS and
who took photos and posted them online had found that 81 per cent of people keep their
Android devices, it has won both Apple’s
a poorer recollection of the events compared smartphones close to them at all times, and App of the Year and Google’ Editor’s Choice
to those who didn’t. It is ironic that in our around half of the participants checked their awards. It’s free to download, and you can
attempt to preserve a memory by capturing smartphones a few times every hour or more. select what you want your goal to be
(improved focus, processing information,
footage of it, we could be preventing that very 7KHVXUYH\DOVRIRXQGWKDWRQHLQȴYH\RXQJ retaining more of what you read etc), and
thing from happening. Americans checked their phone every few Elevate will tailor the training programme to
Another way technology can affect our minutes. This constant switching from one thing you. You are given daily brain workouts of
memory is by being a distraction. Our devices to another has been shown to prevent long-term five games out of more than 35 to complete.
If, for any reason, you forget to complete
offer a seemingly endless amount of content, memories from forming. them, the app will send a notification
from games to videos and social media. There are other ways in which technology reminding you of how many you have left.
There is always something new to look at, could be adversely affecting our ability to :KHQ\RXFRPSOHWHJDPHVWKHGL˵FXOW\ZLOO
and if the brain is unable to focus, then its remember. Looking at smartphone screens and
change depending on your results, which
will help you improve.
ability to memorise what is happening is computer monitors for long periods can affect
going to be impaired. During tasks when we the quality of sleep we get. Our brains need
should be focusing, such as studying for an a good night’s rest to process the information
taken in throughout the day and turn
short-term memories into long-term ones.
The long-term effects of technology’s impact
on our memory are unclear as the amount
of research available today is limited, but we
do know of some of the impacts it is already
having. Too much time spent on our phones
and computers can prevent us from forming
lasting memories, but by being more mindful
of how much we use our devices, we might
Looking at screens for long periods of time can be able to change this. As with most things, Elevate works on improving several parts
of the brain, including memory
© Getty

lead to poor sleep and impact the brain’s ability moderation is key.
to retain information

129
UNDERSTANDING
Memory Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA

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How It Works: The Science Of Memory
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 THE BIOLOGY OF MEMORY TRICKS OF THE MIND FRACTURED MEMORY
Discover how our brains Explore the mysteries What happens when our minds
remember information surrounding memory begin to malfunction

UNDERSTANDING
Memory
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